Giant Surprise
by Vampiricyoshi
Summary: 13-year-old Ellie takes a turn into the abandoned part of her hometown in Tranquility and she is attacked; however she receives help from an unusual source. She later learns secrets about her family that maybe could've waited for later. No specific world.
1. The Pink Motorcycle

Chapter 1

_I know Mom always told me to never take a shortcut through this part of town,_ I thought, _ but she'll be even more angry if I show up late. _

I clutched my backpack tightly to my shoulder. I took a deep breath and detoured from my usual route and started heading through the part of town where it is said they have a new crime every week. I didn't really believe it but the place looked like it's role.

The place looked like a ghost town. Houses were brown and to the point of falling apart. Windows shattered on the houses and abandoned vehicles that were scattered around. And yet not a soul in sight.

_I can't believe I'm doing this,_ I thought. I stepped lightly as if not to draw attention to myself. I constantly looked around to see if anyone was watching me. No one, so far. All the creepier.

I was going home after spending some after school time with some friends. I told them I would walk home but I miscalculated the time walking home.

_The quicker, the better,_ I thought to myself. I began to quicken my pace. Not quite running, just fast walking.

But something caught my eye. It looked out of place among all the worn buildings and vehicles. It was a bright pink, shiny new motorcycle. It was parked in front of this house that had been reduced to its supports. I thought that odd. Why would anyone leave a brand new motorcycle in the middle of the worst possible place? Wouldn't someone try to steal it?

_Not my problem._ I drew my attention away from the motorcycle. I had to get back on task and get home, or else Mom would have a cow. I walked away, careful not to step on broken glass, or torn out car parts.

Suddenly, I felt someone grab my shoulder. I froze instantly with fear.

"What's a girly like you doing out here all by yourself, eh?" asked a very sinister voice. I was afraid to turn around and see who grabbed me. Instead I just stood there.

"Why don't you drop that bag, there and empty your pockets, eh?"

"Okay, fine," I said, my voice shaking. "Just please, don't kill me!" A large, hairy arm wrapped around my neck. I could still breathe, but I couldn't escape.

"Now, why would I hurt a cute girly like you, eh?" The man whispered in my ear making me shudder. "Just do what I say, and you'll be fine."

_I'm dead!_ I thought_**.**_ _I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead! _I wished I had listened to Mom. My heart was thumping so loudly._ What would my Mom think if I got killed just because I didn't listen to her?_ I didn't actually believe the man when he said he wouldn't hurt me.

The man began pulling me toward a nearby ally. I couldn't do anything to stop him. I was just a kid!

The ally was dark. There was a dumpster and some car parts there. The man made me drop my backpack. He kept a good grip on my arm while he patted my pockets. He managed to snag my cell phone and a couple bucks.

He then shoved me up against the dumpster.

"Any regrets?" He asked.

"Hey, I thought you said you wouldn't hurt me!" The man suddenly smiled widely.

"I lied."

I was too scared. My mind was racing around wondering what to do. If I didn't do anything I would never make it home and Mom would be alone.

Suddenly, we heard the loud rumbling of a motorcycle engine. It sounded close so both of us looked. It was coming from the end of the ally we came though.

We were blinded by a single headlight.

"What in the –?"

When the vehicle got closer, I could see it was a bike. A pink bike. And there was no driver.

The bike stopped a few feet from us. It stood there for a moment almost menacingly. Then, somehow, it began to change. It made a mechanical whir as it unfolded. The twisted metal sprouted legs, arms, and a head. It turned into a thirteen-foot tall robot. Its arm grew something that looked like a small glowing cannon. It aimed it right at the man.

"Leave the child be," It said in a mechanical voice, a metal sheet where a mouth would have been splitting and moving accordingly. I gulped. I could've sworn the man was screaming like a girl. He began to run off like the devil was after him. While running away he dropped all of my stuff on the ground.

I, on the other hand, couldn't move. I was too scared. It may have seemed like this thing was on my side, but it was a freaking giant robot! My knees shook under my weight as I stared at it.

The robot knelt down to eye level with me. I could feel the blood rushing from my face.

"Are you alright?" it asked. I couldn't say anything. I was too scared to even name a sound.

Finally, I got enough feeling to be able to move my legs. I turned and started to bolt, but I didn't get too far. A giant metal hand had grabbed me around the waist and lifted me up from the ground. The robot turned me to see my face.

"Don't worry, little one," it said in an almost soothing voice. "I will not harm you. What is your name?" I felt like my heart was in my throat.

"E-Ellie," I managed.

"And I will give you mine in return," the robot said. "My name is Arcee." I nodded

"N-nice to meet you," I said nervously. I still wasn't entirely sure if I was okay.

"Indeed," Arcee replied. "I'm terribly sorry you had to go through that ordeal."

"Oh, no, it wasn't your fault!" I said quickly. "I just wasn't paying attention." I breathed to calm myself.

I looked at the Arcee and realized I had a question. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but are you a girl?"

Suddenly, Arcee began to make a sound from her audio processors that sounded like laughing.

"Why, of course I'm a girl!" she said. "What would make you think different?" I didn't answer. She bent over, while still cradling me in her arm and picked up my backpack and my phone. She handed them to me. "Now, let us go." I stared up at her.

"Go? Go where?" I asked confused.

"Why, I'm taking you home," Arcee said with a slight laugh. "That is, assuming, you know where you live."

"Well, of course I do," I said quickly. "I just wasn't really expecting a ride from a giant robot!"

"Don't worry yourself," Arcee assured me. "I will not be seen in this form." She set me down on my feet. "As you have seen, I can easily blend in." She crouched down and shrunk back into the pink motorcycle. "We must hurry. Your family is probably missing you."

"So, you're just gonna let me go?" I asked. "Just drop me at home and zoom off?"

"Well, not 'zoom off,' per se," Arcee replied. "I, of course will be keeping a close eye on you. You've seen me and I can't just let that pass." I gulped nervously. "We try to keep our state a secret but we act when we must." I stared at her surprised.

"So, you put your position at stake for me?" I asked. The front of the motorcycle rose and fell as if nodding.

"Yes," Arcee replied quietly. "I can't stand it when another is in danger." She straightened herself up. "Well, hop on. We haven't got all night." I stared at her for a moment, wondering if I should take her offer.

Finally, I sighed and slung my backpack over my shoulder. I slid into the motorcycle seat and gripped the handle bars.

"Hold on tight, Ellie," Arcee said excitedly. "This could get rough. Now, what's your address?"

She sat quietly for the brief moment to hear where I lived.

When I finished she said, "Hang on! Here we go!"

The tires screeched in place for a bit and we zoomed off. I've always hated riding in motorcycles, but I figured that Arcee knew what she was doing. As long as it's not anything too dangerous.

We zoomed through the broken up neighborhood, dodging random items on the road. I thought I might die if she didn't slow down. We flew past signs, other cars, and around turns. I thought we might crash. She narrowly missed a black and white police car coming from the other direction.

Finally, we stopped in front of a familiar house. I slid off the seat and almost fell on the ground because I was so shaken from the ride.

"Careful, there," Arcee said. "Don't want you passing out now." I looked toward her nervously. I thought about asking her what she was thinking but decided against it.

"Thanks for the ride," I said still shaking.

"You be careful, now," Arcee said. "I'll come by soon to see how you are doing. And please, don't tell anyone."

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," I assured her, surprised that she would think I would do such a thing. "I'll never tell a soul."

Arcee was quiet for a bit, as if deciding whether I was telling the truth or not.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"I'm just wondering how our leader will take this news," Arcee replied quietly.

I patted the seat of the motorcycle and said, "I'm free tomorrow, if you want to tell him then. It's Saturday."

"Very well," Arcee said, though she still didn't sound certain. "Good night's rest. I'll come and get you sometime in the morning."

"Okay," I replied nervously. "See ya." I turned toward my house. I heard Arcee's motorcycle engine as she sped away. I looked back to watch her leave but she was gone. I walked up the path to my front porch. This was almost unbelievable. I was robbed, saved by a robot, and hitched a ride on that robot home.

I sighed and opened my front door. It was quiet except I could hear the TV on in the living room. Mom was probably watching something.

"Mom, I'm home," I called out.

"Welcome home," Mom replied from the other room. "Dinner's in the fridge."

"Thanks," I said. I wasn't late.

I set my stuff on the table and sat down. After what happened, I wasn't really that hungry. Too much stuff had happened for my mind to comprehend. At least I had managed to escape my Mom's wrath.

I dug into my backpack. I didn't have much homework because it was the weekend (not like that stops teachers from dishing it out). I got annoyed because I couldn't concentrate on the work. Trying to be normal after an experience like that wasn't really going to work out well, I could tell. I slammed the book closed in frustration.

_Why did I disobey Mom? _I thought to myself angrily. _Am I stupid?_

"Ellie, is something wrong?" Mom asked from the other room. I heard her get up and walk towards the kitchen.

"I'm fine," I called back. "This work is just hard." Mom peered into the room.

"Well, do you want help with it?" she asked.

"No, no, no," I said quickly. "I'll do it. It's fine. You need to watch TV." Mom stared at me for a moment uncertainly.

"You sure?" she asked.

"Oh, yes," I tried to assure her. "Just go watch whatever. I'll be fine."

"Okay..." Mom turned and went back to the living room. I lay my head on the math book.

_Idiot, _I thought. _I'm such an idiot._

I put down my pencil. I had the whole weekend to work on homework, I reasoned. It wasn't due till Monday. I needed to clear my mind.

I stood up and walked to the cupboard. I took out a glass and filled it with water at the sink. My mind was racing with meeting Arcee. The whole idea seemed totally improbable and yet it happened.

Then I realized something. I was going to meet her again. Tomorrow we were going to go see her leader. I almost choked on my water realizing that. If there was a leader then there were probably more of them.

"Hon, you alright?" I froze for half a second.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Mom," I answered breathlessly. "Just got water down the wrong tube."

I grabbed a dish towel from the stove and wiped my face. I went back to my backpack. I shoved my books back in and pulled out my notebook. I opened it to a blank page, took out my pencil, and began doodling.

I didn't know what to do. I was fidgeting so much and I had to keep my hands busy. My experience had left me clueless.

"That's a nice robot." I jumped at the sound of Mom's voice being right behind me. I looked at my paper. I had somehow unknowingly drawn Arcee.

"Eh, thanks," I said quietly. I closed my notebook and picked up my backpack. "I'm going to work on my homework in my room."

"All right," Mom said. "Go to bed at nine, okay?" I waved to show I heard as I left the room.

I climbed up the stairs and opened the door to my room. I tossed my bag on the bed and walked over to the window and stuck my head out. I set my palm on my chin as I looked at the sky. The stars were beginning to come out. I began to wonder which one Arcee and her kind came from.

I grabbed a chair and set it by the window. I got my notebook and sat down. I pulled out my pencil and added more details to Arcee's picture. For some reason, I was interested in her kind and I wanted to know more.

_This either could be lucky or really bad,_ I thought. _But either way, it happened. I've met Arcee and was opened to a new view of things. Might as well make the best of it._


	2. Meet the Crew

Chapter 2

I was awakened by the annoyed rumbling of a motorcycle engine outside of my window.

_Crap_, I thought grudgingly. _I forgot_. I sat up and quickly got dressed into a t-shirt and pants. For some reason, I grabbed my bag which held my notebook.  
I raced downstairs. I could smell eggs, but was in too much of a hurry to be hungry.  
"Mom, I'm going to hang out with Marcie today," I said aloud. Naturally, that was a lie. "I've got my phone, kay?"  
"All right," Mom replied tiredly from the kitchen.  
I raced out the door, hopped down the steps and ran down the walk toward the pink motorcycle that was waiting for me, seemingly impatient.  
"You're late," Arcee said annoyed.  
"Sorry," I said apologetically. "It's Saturday so I'm normally asleep at this time."  
Arcee made an annoyed rumbling sound but said nothing. I slid onto the motorcycle seat and barely got a grip on the handle bars when Arcee took off. I held on for dear life, afraid to move as we raced between Saturday morning traffic which, luckily, wasn't very much. Once again we narrowly missed a police car. I began to think us extremely lucky that he didn't go after us. Arcee seemed to be in a hurry.  
We headed to more remote parts of town. The buildings began growing fewer and fewer in number the trees began growing more and more. Soon, all I could see was trees.  
Arcee turned onto a dirt road that went into the forest. It was rough and bumpy so I held tightly to Arcee.  
We stopped in a clearing. I couldn't even see the road we turned from anymore. The trees around us were thick but I could see large spaces where they had been pushed away.  
"They'll be here soon," Arcee told me. "Might be a few minutes."  
"That's fine," I said. I slid off the seat of the motorcycle. I heard metal moving behind me as Arcee changed.  
Suddenly, I felt something bump into me. I dropped my bag and all my stuff spilled out onto the ground.  
"Oh, I'm sorry," Arcee said. She carefully grabbed my arm and pulled me up onto my feet. She began picking up my stuff and carefully putting them into my bag. "I'm so sorry," she kept saying.  
Arcee suddenly stopped. I looked to see why. My notebook had fallen open to her picture and she was looking at it.  
"Oh, I'm sorry. That…" I reached out for it.  
"An incredible likeness," Arcee said smiling.  
"Yeah, thanks," I replied quietly, slightly embarrassed. Arcee nodded her head.  
She put my notebook into my bag and handed it to me. I took it and sat down on a rock. Arcee came and sat beside me. We sat like that for what seemed like a half an hour.  
Pretty soon I was already getting restless from waiting. "When do you think they'll get here?" I asked anxiously, but I immediately regretted it. I didn't want it to seem that I thought this wasn't important. Arcee laughed at the face I was making.  
"Won't be long now," she told me. "I was instructed to arrive early." I just stared at her. I still wasn't used to the idea of there being more robots here. "They'll be gathering just outside the clearing," she continued, taking no notice of my expression. "Optimus wanted everyone else to come in at once."  
"Optimus?" I asked. Arcee just smiled.  
"You'll see soon enough."  
I looked down at my feet and started kicking dirt into a pile. A few times I thought I heard engines but when I looked the way Arcee and I had come in but there was nothing.  
I began to wonder if they were ever going to come when I suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of vehicles coming up the dirt road.  
"Here they come," I heard Arcee say. I looked to where she was looking and almost fell off of my rock.  
I watched as eight vehicles came into the clearing kicking up dust behind them. A huge blue and red sixteen-wheeler truck in the lead followed closely by an ambulance, a black and white police car, a red Lamborghini and a yellow Lamborghini, a silver Solstice sports car, a yellow Camero with black racing stripes, and a big black four-door truck. They surrounded Arcee and me. I could feel my heart beating loudly. Arcee stepped back away from me in line between the Camero and the truck.  
Suddenly, all at once the vehicles changed shape in the manner that Arcee had. The sixteen-wheeler turned into a bulky thirty-foot robot with a cover over its mouth. I could tell that it was apparently the leader.  
It kneeled down to look me in the eye. My heart was beating faster. It was just so big.  
"Ellie," it said in a deep, mechanical voice, "my name is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots."  
"H-hi," I said. He just nodded.  
"You have met Arcee," he said. He stood up and motioned to the robot who was the police car. "This is Prowl."  
"Pleasure to meet you," Prowl said. I just nodded. Prowl's police parts were still visible on him, like Arcee's motorcycle parts were. The words "Highway" and "Patrol" were at the bottom on each of his legs and the red and blue siren lights rested on his shoulders and the police insignia was on his upper arms.  
Optimus pointed at the silver sports car robot. "This is Jazz," he said. Jazz waved at me and I waved back. Jazz looked just as cool as his car form did. He was tall and not as bulky as Optimus was and his silver color shown brightly. He had a visor over his eyes rather than a mask like Optimus had.  
Optimus pointed at the ambulance robot next to Jazz. "This is Ratchet, our medical officer."  
"Hello," Ratchet said. Ratchet was white with red in some places and the medical insignia on one of his shoulders. His lights were also on his shoulders, like Prowl. He was only slightly taller than Prowl and Jazz and not much shorter than Optimus looked.  
Optimus pointed at the red and yellow Lamborghini robots. "This is Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, the twins," he said.  
"Nice to meet you!" they said at the same time. I just smiled at them. They may have been twins and may have been the same type of vehicle but they were still easy to distinguish. Sunstreaker, who I supposed was the yellow one, had on a black helmet with parts coming out the sides that reminded me of a Viking helmet that were yellow. He had black forearms and yellow legs, unlike his brother who had grey arms and legs. Sideswipe also had a black helmet but it lacked the "horns" that Sunstreaker's had.  
Optimus pointed at the black truck robot. "My weapons specialist, Ironhide." I waved at him. He didn't say anything. He just glared. He was a big guy and extremely bulky. I supposed that since he was the weapons specialist that it was for storing ammo or energy or whatever these robots used.  
Optimus finally pointed to the yellow and black sports car robot. "And this is Bumblebee."  
"The name suits you," I said. I really meant it. The black racing stripes on his car form clashed wonderfully with the yellow and it looked like the doors of his car form had folded up on his back making them look like wings.  
"Why thank you, Ellie," he said cheerfully. His voice pitch told me that he might have been even younger than Sideswipe and Sunstreaker but I couldn't tell for sure.  
Ironhide turned to Arcee. "Explain again how you managed to screw up and reveal your secret to a human," he said annoyed. Arcee looked at him angrily.  
"It was a split second decision!" Arcee snapped at him. "I couldn't let her get hurt!"  
"Humans hurt each other every day," Ironhide said. "You didn't need to get involved."  
"Stop it you two!" Ratchet said. "What's done is done. She knows. That's the end of it." Arcee and Ironhide just scowled at each other. I held onto my backpack tighter. I felt sort of scared for Arcee because Ironhide was so big, but mostly for myself because he didn't seem to like me at all.  
I felt a mechanical hand lightly pat my head. It was Sunstreaker. Sideswipe was kneeling next to him. I was surprised I didn't hear them come up.  
"Don't worry about it," Sunstreaker said.  
"Yeah," Sideswipe said. "Ironhide's just a hot-head about these things."  
"What was that?" Ironhide asked angrily. The boom of his voice made me shudder. I didn't look but I could tell the twins were smiling.  
"I said you were a hot-head," Sideswipe said purposely to annoy him.  
_Oh, gosh. Please don't taunt him._  
"Enough," Optimus said before Ironhide could react. "We have some explaining to do for Ellie." Ironhide scowled. The twins just nodded and they took their place among the Autobots. Optimus looked down at me.  
"We are here to stop the Decepticons," he said. That was a bit too blunt for me.  
"What are the Decepticons?" I asked hoping for more information.  
"A group of our kind with evil intentions," Prowl said.  
"Not even our kind anymore if you ask me," Ironhide growled.  
"They plan to make Earth their new home by eliminating the entire human race," Prowl finished.  
"D-destroy the human race?" I asked alarmed. Optimus nodded. I could hardly believe it. How could that be happening without anybody knowing about it? Then a thought came to me. "Well, how come I haven't seen anything happen yet?" I asked.  
"They are sending in an advance team to scope out Earth and make a strategy," Ratchet said. "Any way we can slow them down or completely stop them would help greatly."  
I just stared. Yesterday, the worst of my problems were that I was worried about Mom if I got home late. But now, the whole Earth was in danger. It was so much I felt my head might explode.  
"I...I don't know what to think," I said. "What should I do?"  
"Any help you can offer would be accepted," Optimus said. "But we don't want to get you involved in this."  
"It's a little too late for that," I said. "Whether you like it or not, I'm aware and I'll help in any way I can." Arcee smiled at me. Optimus was silent. Prowl looked at him.  
"Optimus, you can't be serious," he said. "Getting a human, a CHILD, involved in the fate of her world."  
"Exactly," Optimus replied quickly. "HER world. And she has a point. She's involved whether anyone likes it or not." Bumblebee nodded. He glanced at Ironhide.  
"Well, you know I don't like it," Ironhide said annoyed. Sideswipe nudged him.  
"Aw, come on, Ironhide," he said. "Having a human around might be FUN." His twin nodded in agreement.  
"It's not that I hate her or anything it's just that-" Ironhide suddenly stopped himself. He looked away from me. Prowl looked at me.  
"Any information that you come across would most certainly be helpful," he said. I looked at him.  
"That is all there is to discuss," Optimus said. "You may go home now."  
"Aw," the twins said. "Can't she stay a little longer, Optimus?"  
"Yeah, my Mom's not expecting me back till later," I added. Optimus blinked. Bumblebee smiled. Optimus thought a bit.  
"Very well," he said finally. "You may stay with us for a while longer."  
"Yes, work on those drawings of yours," Arcee said cheerfully.  
"Drawings?" the twins said at the same time. They looked at me, their eyes shining with glee. "We wanna see! We wanna see!" I stared at them. How could these advanced robots act like kids?  
"Uh, well, I don't think they're very good," I started to say. But I noticed even Ironhide was peeking at me curiously.  
"Nonsense," Arcee said. "That drawing you did of me was extremely accurate." I looked around nervously.  
"Uh, okay," I said. I pulled out my notebook. I turned to Arcee's page.  
Suddenly, Sunstreaker snatched it out of my hands. He and Sideswipe began looking at it. They flipped through the entire book.  
"Wow!" Sideswipe said excitedly. The notebook was passed through the Autobots. All of them coming to the same conclusion. Even Ironhide caught a glimpse of it. The twins looked at me with big eyes.  
"Do one of us! Do one of us!" they said. I smiled.  
_Why not?_ I thought. Best be friends with the Autobots. And they seem like they would really enjoy it.  
Jazz came and sat on the ground next to me. "Why don't you do me first; I'll even put on your favorite music. What'll it be?"  
I scratched my head nervously. "Well, I do like Techno…" I started to say. Instantly there was my favorite Techno song coming out of Jazz. I looked up at him and smiled. Then I looked down and started doing his structure sketch.  
I spent most of the day sketching with the Autobots watching interested. I showed Ironhide his and he seemed to like it, though he wouldn't admit it. It made me smile.  
But I couldn't stay there forever. Arcee had to get me home before dinner. I said good-bye to the Autobots and Arcee and I sped off.  
"You seemed to have rather enjoyed that," Arcee said.  
"I bet Ironhide would do the same thing," I said.  
"Pardon?"  
"When you saved me, you risked you cover for me," I said. "I think Ironhide would have done the same thing." Arcee was quiet. "Don't you?"  
"I think you may be right," Arcee said. "The big lug may act tough, men are like that, but he's got a soft spot somewhere. I think that may be for you."  
"What? Me? Why?"  
"He may just be worried about you," Arcee replied. "He didn't want you involved in this anymore than any of us did. He did seem to like his drawing," she added with a slight snicker. I smiled.  
"You're probably right," I said.  
Arcee stopped in front of my house and I got off. I turned around and looked at her.  
"Doesn't it, like, look weird when you're driving around?" I asked. "You're a motorcycle and it's noticeable that you don't have a driver."  
"I'm very careful to go on the road less traveled on," Arcee replied. I just smiled.  
I said good-bye and went inside. At least today I could actually focus on my homework. I got most of it done well before bed time.  
'Today was a pretty good day,' I thought.  
"You're smiling pretty big today," Mom said.  
"I just had a good day with Emma," I said.  
"I thought you went to Marcie's." My heart stopped for half a second.  
"Oh! Yeah, I mean Marcie," I said quickly. "Sorry." Mom blinked at me. She shook her head. She set a bowl of stew in front of me.  
"Now eat," she said. "You didn't eat anything last night, this morning, and I have no idea if you had lunch." I hadn't notice it, but I was starving. Too much excitement was going on to notice.  
I gulped down the whole bowl dry and even had a second bowl.  
I went to my room later and I began to think about what the Autobots had said. "We are here to stop the Decepticons." "...eliminate the human race." "...evil intentions." It really began to sink in how much Earth was in danger.  
"What could I do to help?" I asked myself quietly. "I'm just a kid." I flipped through my notebook and looked at the new pictures. I stopped at Ironhide. He really was worried about me. I didn't want to worry anyone.  
I closed my book and lay down on my pillow. I closed my eyes. I just didn't know what to do.


	3. Just Another Sunday

Chapter 3

Sunday had started fairly normally. I slept until nine thirty, like I always did, took a shower, had a sausage and egg breakfast made by Mom, and sat in front of the TV with my homework.

The only difference was that I paid less attention to my Math and English and more to the news. We normally didn't ever have the news on since three years ago, but I felt like I could help the Autobots somehow by keeping an eye on top stories, watching out for anything that I thought could be related to Decepticon activity.

But I was disappointed. There was nothing that I could see that could even remotely be related to giant transforming alien robots.

I grumbled. _This sucks,_ I thought. _What good am I to know this secret of the Autobots if I can't help them?_

"Oh," my mom's quiet voice said from behind me, "having a little difference in routine, I see."

I looked up and saw her eyes staring at the TV. I had to come up with an excuse fast.

I sat up straight. "Uh, I'm looking out for some stuff for some friends of mine," I told her. "They're… uh, doing something and I just thought that I could," I shrugged as casually as I could, "you know… help them out." I wasn't technically lying, and I hoped that the half-a**ed explanation would be enough for her.

My mom sighed. "Alright," she said putting her hand on her forehead. "Just give me a little warning next time… you know how I feel about this channel."

"I know, Mom," I replied.

Then I thought, _How could I forget?_

Mom left the room and I have a sigh. I closed my half-done homework into its binder and lay back onto the couch, my arms being pillows for my head.

_Why bother?_ I asked myself. _I shouldn't watch the news because of how Mom feels about it, and there isn't anything going on anyway. This really isn't the way to help Arcee and everyone else_. But I couldn't think of any other way. _Man… I really am pathetic._

I had apparently dozed off because I was woken up by the honking of a diesel-engine truck. The TV was off – my mother must have turned it off while I was out of it – so it had to be coming from outside.

_G**, people are so inconsiderate_, I thought as I sat up, for some reason holding my doodle notebook, and went to the front window and peeked through the blinds.

Sure enough, there was a black four-door diesel truck with a huge silver grill parked in front of my house by the white mailbox. But there was something about this truck: there was no driver.

I was actually surprised. Arcee wasn't the one picking me up this time, and I really had no warning of meeting the Autobots today. So why was Ironhide here?

"Hey, Mom," I called, "I'm gonna go out with a friend of mine. I'm not sure how long it will take, but I've got my phone."

"Do you have your homework done?" my mom asked from her workroom.

"Yes," I lied.

"Alright, make sure you're home for dinner."

I didn't even say good-bye – I just put on my shoes and went out the front door. I had to see what was up.

"Sorry about the unexpected visit," Ironhide said in his usual rough voice.

"Don't worry about it," I replied. "Just keep your voice down. We can't let anyone notice you."

Ironhide just made a grumbling sound.

I sighed. "So… what's up?" I asked leaning my back against the side of his cab.

Again, Ironhide said nothing but it felt like he drooped a bit. I couldn't even tell if he was annoyed with me or if something was wrong.

"Ironhide?" I asked.

"Get in the cab."

I was startled by the sudden command, but with a quick check to see if Mom was watching I went around and got in the driver's side.

It felt weird being in the driver's seat. Not just because I was only thirteen, but it was the fact that I wasn't going to be the one driving. At least when riding Arcee it looked like I was driving, but I didn't need to hold on for dear life with Ironhide.

"Put on the belt," Ironhide told me.

"Oh, right," I said and reached across and snapped in the belt. "Is there something you guys need to talk about?" I asked.

"No," Ironhide said quietly as he began to pull out of the parallel park. "I just wanted ta go fer a drive an' I thought you should accompany me. Ya don't mind, do ya?"

"Ah, no" I said to him quickly. "It's just…" I thought, "you don't seem like someone who would go for a joyride." I smiled. "Or, 'somebot,' should I say."

"I ain't particularly interested in sittin' around doin' nothin'," Ironhide replied, not noting my joke. "I hafta be doin' somethin', fightin' or not, or I'd go crazy."

"Transformers can go crazy?" I asked.

"I'm assumin' you made up that nickname for our kind," Ironhide said with a slightly heightened pitch in his voice, almost like he was amused. "Yeah, Cybertronians can go crazy. Their circuits get all messed up. I once went to an Autobot boot camp. Sorta like the ones here on earth. A 'bot named Wasp was in my group. Funny things were goin' on around camp an' it was Wasp who was found to be the traitor. Didn't really know the guy, ta be honest. Didn't care. I heard that later he had gone insane and escaped and was still loose."

"Ooh…" I said a little queasily. "I don't think I'd want to meet him."

"But…" Ironhide said suddenly, "the reason I told you wasn't really why I came to get ya." I looked at the radio puzzled. "There's somethin' ya should know. It's about Arcee."

My eyes widened slightly. "Is… something wrong?" I asked.

"She's been missin' all day," Ironhide replied quietly, the roughness in his voice gone. "I've tried, but I ain't gettin' a signal on her."

"Do… the other Autobots know about this?" I asked him.

"Not that I know of," Ironhide answered. "I don't think so."

"Well, she is more noticeable as a motorcycle with no driver," I pointed out. "Do you think something bad happened?"

"I don't know," Ironhide told me. "But it's really beginnin' to bug me."

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

"I got you so that you could look," Ironhide said, "but I don't know where to start."

"Let's look where I first met her," I suggested.

Ironhide was quiet as I directed him toward the neighborhood where Arcee rescued me.

We slowly drove down the street and I kept an eye out for any speck of pink.

"I don't see her," I said.

"Neither do I," Ironhide replied.

I slumped back into the black leather, tired from looking over the dashboard. "Man, where could she be?" I asked aloud.

"If she gets herself killed," Ironhide said, "I'll kill her."

I looked at the radio wondering how that was possible, but I shook it off. I sighed. "Well, let's go with the process of elimination," I said. "She's not here, so let's try someplace else."

"I'm gettin' too old for this," Ironhide grumbled. "Any other ideas?"

Before I could answer him I heard sirens and saw red and blue lights reflecting inside the cab of Ironhide.

"Oh, crap!" I exclaimed sinking into my seat. "I don't have a license! I'm only thirteen!"

"Don't worry," Ironhide said calmly. "I'll handle this."

Ironhide's engine roared and I felt myself forced back into the seat. We picked up speed and sped through the aged and muted neighborhood. Ironhide zipped and dodged between junk and car parts that littered the road. His engine was so loud I could barely even think to panic. He moved surprisingly fast as a diesel truck.

But the police car maneuvered just as easily as we did and there didn't seem to be any effort in keeping up. I began to think of excuses if we were caught, but they all seemed incredibly lame.

Soon, the abandoned look on the neighborhood disappeared and turned into modern-looking streets, but it was just as deserted because it was Sunday.

Ironhide continued to weave through streets, making unexpected turns and fakes. But the police car stayed right on our tail.

Ironhide began to make a turn between two tall maroon-colored buildings.

"No, Ironhide, that's a…"

We suddenly stopped.

"…dead end." I was too late.

Ironhide turned around but the police car had blocked our way out. I held onto the seat. There was no way out. We were trapped. I was probably going to bet my license two years late, and maybe go to juvie. Heck, even the possibilities were lame.

"What do you think you're doing?" The sudden commanding voice surprised me. But Ironhide didn't say anything.

"Prowl?" I asked uncertainly.

The black and white police car grew into an annoyed-looking Prowl. He folded his arms.

"Well?" he asked. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"

I unbuckled the seatbelt got out. Behind me, I heard moving metal as Ironhide morphed into robot form.

"We're looking for Arcee," Ironhide told him.

Prowl sighed and closed his eyes, shaking his head. He looked down at me. "We were worried when we found both Arcee and Ironhide missing," he said. "Optimus sent me out to check your home to see if you were there, but you were not. I then proceeded to search for you two."

I folded my arms and looked up at Ironhide. "You said the other Autobots didn't know she was gone," I said to him.

Ironhide didn't answer me. He just grumbled.

I sighed and looked back at Prowl. "Do you have any idea where Arcee is?" I asked.

But Prowl shook his head. "No," he said. But then he looked at Ironhide. "Why did you go and get Ellie?" he asked. Ironhide blinked.

"I thought that she should know," he replied quickly. "She insisted on comin' with me."

_I did not!_ I thought glaring at Ironhide.

"Uh-huh," Prowl said unconvinced. "Well, let us continue looking."

I blinked. "Wait, you're going to look with us?"

"Since I have found you it would be wise to turn my attention to Arcee," Prowl said plainly.

He shrunk back into his police car as Ironhide transformed into his truck. The truck door opened and I got in. I put my belt on and slumped in the seat as we continued going down the street, now being led by Prowl. I looked out the window searching, but only half-heartedly. My worry for Arcee began to sink in and it was becoming hard to focus.

I saw another black and white police car pass us. It was the same type as Prowl, but somehow it gave me a weird feeling.

"Ironhide," I said.

"Yeah?"

"That car," I whispered, almost as if Prowl might hear me. "I don't know why, but something felt…" I paused trying to figure out the next words, "wrong… somehow."

"We got nothin' ta lose if we follow it," Ironhide told me. "Unless I'm mistaken, human police forces tend ta go on patrol over a section of the city. Maybe followin' 'im we can cover more ground."

"Do we tell Prowl?"

"I'll get him ta get Optimus," Ironhide assured me. "If we need it, he could provide backup."

Ironhide pulled a slow u-turn and we kept up with the police car at a safe distance. As far as I could tell, it didn't know it was being followed. I wondered if Ironhide was going to say anything to Prowl, but then I remembered: he was like a robot. They probably had some kind of internal com system that they could talk to each other. I figured it was a safe bet.

_Of course Ironhide probably thinks there'll be trouble_, I thought to myself. _He's gonna ask Prowl to get backup. So it makes sense that he would think that_.

"I told Prowl," Ironhide told me quietly, clearly not wanting to draw the police officer's attention. "We're gonna follow this guy an' see what happens."

We followed him around until it actually began to get late. I wasn't worried about being late for my curfew or anything. That was actually the least of my worries. What worried me was that in all that time we didn't hear or see anything of Arcee at all.

The police car led us toward the broken-up neighborhood again. I thought it might be the edge of his route and that he was going to turn, but surprisingly he didn't. He kept driving head on into the street without showing any sign of thinking twice. Quietly, and at an even greater distance than before, Ironhide followed.

I had only cut through a small corner in this part of town and I never even thought about going any deeper.

But this police man wasn't that cautious it seemed. We had passed the neighborhood that Ironhide and I had gone through earlier and went even deeper. I noticed old abandoned warehouses, only like five or six of them spread extremely far apart with unboundried junk and scrap yards in between them.

By now the police car had picked up speed and looked as if he was in a hurry to be someplace.

"That's odd," Ironhide said through the radio.

We followed after it as closely as we could without being seen, but then the car swerved suddenly in between piles of scrap and disappeared.

We stopped and Ironhide opened the driver-side door, letting me out. He then transformed into his robot form and I could see he was planning to sneak in.

"What about me?" I asked quietly.

"Hang back," Ironhide told me. "I'm not likin' this place an' that police car was actin' awful weird. A young organic like you shouldn't be with me on this."

"The only reason I agreed to come with you is because I wanted to find Arcee and I'm sure as heck going to find her. If she is here and if she's in some kind of trouble, I want to help her! I REALLY don't want you to go all 'stay out of this, human' on me!"

Ironhide grumbled. He set his hand down by me with his metal palm facing up and I climbed on. He held me up to his shoulder and I held on as we began moving.

Ironhide crept in, ducking between the piles of junk. We got in further in and around every corner I expected something to jump out. But I kept quiet and kept my eyes peeled for the police car and Arcee.

We finally reached the edge of a clearing. It was almost as if everything was pushed aside just to make it. But in the center I noticed something no bigger than thirteen feet long lying on the ground. It was pink and humanoid-shaped. It was Arcee.

I was excited. We had found her intact and now we could take her home.

"Easy," Ironhide whispered, sensing my happiness. "This has to be some kind of trap."

For a moment I didn't know what he was talking about and was about to ask if he was crazy. But then I noticed something about Arcee. It looked as if she was bound at her feet and hands behind her back. She wasn't moving.

"What do we do?" I asked quietly.

Before he could reply, I thought that I heard a jet engine straight overhead. Instinctively, I ducked, but when I looked back up I could see the jet that had made the sound. It was hovering about fifty yards from Arcee.

_Wait,_ I thought, _jets don't hover._ This wasn't a jet at all.

For a moment it didn't do anything. But then it stopped its engines and started to drop. Before it hit the ground, however, it began to change. It was so fast, I only barely caught what happened. The nose of the jet bent and shifted to its belly, while the wings moved up the body and up to sit on the back. The engines at the tail split to form thin legs with pointed toes. Two arms grew with digits looking like claws and finally from where the nose of the jet had been a long and narrow-shaped head came out with bright red optics. The jet was a Cybertronian. And Ironhide didn't need to tell me that this was a Decepticon. The tan robot landed softly on the ground, using his jet engines on his feet as thrusters.

Once he was down he tapped the side of his helmet. "Barricade!" he demanded aloud in a high, mechanical, scratchy voice that just seemed to hurt my ears when I heard it. "Barricade! What is your position? You were supposed to meet me here!" He waited, apparently listening to whoever this Barricade was on the other end. "I don't give a slag if you thought some human was following you!" the tan robot said finally. "You were supposed to be here cycles ago! Now get here before I lose my temper!" And apparently without waiting for a reply he removed his hand from his helmet, evidently ending the transmission.

"You misunderstood me, Starscream."

I almost squealed at the voice that seemed to have come from beside us, but Ironhide had reached up and quickly, but gently, put his finger over my mouth.

"I merely was stating the REASON I was late," the same metallic voice continued as a robot stepped from an opening to the clearing beside us. "I did not mean to imply that I was going to be any later."

This new Cybertronian, who was also clearly another Decepticon, was about as tall as Prowl would have been. He was black and white, like Prowl, so this had to be the police car we were following earlier. There didn't seem to be any visible spot that the sirens went, but the car doors, which were folded on the back like wings, said "Highway Patrol", just as Prowl's did. His face was dark, almost completely black, and two red optics were visible above a grey-silver mouth that looked like a short beak.

"Well," Starscream said folding his arms with authority, "Megatron may have put up with such excuses, but I will not from here on out. You are to follow my orders as I tell you!"

"Yes, oh Leader," Barricade said without variation from his earlier tone.

Starscream glared at him for a moment, but then he seemed satisfied. He then suddenly kicked Arcee onto her back, but she didn't wake up.

"With one of the Autobots," Barricade said, "we can stop them from getting in the way of our conquest."

"If we can get information out of her, that is," Starscream told him with slight annoyance. "I know from experience that Autobots are incredibly stubborn."

He reached behind his back over his shoulder and I was surprised to see him pull out a small rod that grew longer as he did and it ended in a short forked point. He then jabbed it into Arcee's right shoulder and I saw a series of blue electoral jolts surge through her body. Arcee gave out a loud ear-piercing mechanical screech of pain at the rude awakening. Ironhide twitched beneath me and I didn't blame him one bit.

"Good morning," Starscream said sarcastically kneeling down, bring his face close to Arcee's. "Did you have a good recharge cycle?"

"I hope you get rusted," Arcee growled quietly, barely enough for Ironhide and I to hear.

Starscream frowned. He stood up and turned from Arcee, folding his arms. He looked back over his shoulder and said, "Now, Autobot, are you ready to talk?" I was slightly relieved. Whatever they had wanted, Arcee hadn't told the Decepticons anything… yet.

"You wish," Arcee snapped. Starscream's red optics glared at her.

He suddenly swung around and in the blink of an eye a huge energy cannon with its insides glowing blue grew from his right forearm and he aimed it at Arcee's head.

"You will tell me where the Autobot base of operations is and what they are doing here," Starscream hissed, "or I will blow your head to megabits!"

"And lose your only source of information?" Arcee asked slyly. "Is that really the best course of action, Starscream?"

Starscream didn't budge. In fact, he was smiling. "Then one less Autobot to deal with," he said evilly. I saw the cannon had begun to grow brighter and I was beginning to thing Arcee was going to die.

"Enough of this," Ironhide growled. He picked me up from his shoulder and set me on the ground. "Stay here," he ordered.

I stared as Ironhide stood up and, with a single bound, leaped over the stack of scrap metal we were hiding behind. I dropped my notebook and ran to the edge of the pile and looked, seeing what Ironhide was going to do.

He was facing Starscream and Barricade with cannons grown from his forearms and aimed. The Decepticons and Arcee were looking at him.

"Let 'er go!" Ironhide demanded, clearly angry.

"Perfect," Starscream said with evil pleasure. His cannon powered down back to simply glowing and he stood up facing Ironhide. "Now we have two Autobots in our clutches."

Before either Ironhide or I could do anything, six Decepticons of different shapes, sizes and colors began appearing out of every crevice of the junkyard. All had red optics that glowed angrily at Ironhide. Ironhide stood his ground, but was glancing about clearly trying to decide what to do. He was trapped.

Starscream smiled. "Get him."


	4. Oh, Crap

Chapter 4

The Decepticons started heading for Ironhide at top speed. My heart was pumping hard. I was sure that Ironhide was a good fighter, but I wasn't sure if he'd last even five minutes with all the enemies rushing toward him. I didn't know if I could watch the fight considering the odds.

But then I remembered – Arcee. She was still tied up and watching helplessly. I knew the Decepticons wouldn't be able to notice me while they were dealing with Ironhide. I had to find a way to release her.

_But HOW!_ I asked myself. _I'm just a kid! A HUMAN in this giant robot fight!_

Still trying to figure out what to do, I started looking for a long piece of pipe that I could carry. Maybe I could somehow pick the lock on Arcee's bindings. Right now, it was my best bet.

I found a good pipe, one that was hardly rusted and light enough for me to carry. I looked back at the battle. Now it was the issue of getting to Arcee without getting stepped on. Luckily, the Decepticons were only focused on Ironhide right now. Hopefully they wouldn't notice a small organic like me.

Making sure that my shoes were tied tightly so that I wouldn't trip, I held the pipe with both hands and bolted from my hiding spot.

Only then did I realize my plan was like Swiss cheese. It was by some miracle that I reached Arcee in one piece.

Arcee had noticed me and turned herself to look at me as I stopped, panting and still holding the pipe. "Ellie! What are you doing here?"

"Tryin'… to figure that out… right now," I replied breathing. "Let…let me look at those cuff things on you."

Arcee sighed and rolled over. "Hurry," she urged me quietly as I set to work on finding some kind of lock.

_This is crap!_ I thought grumpily. _There's no key opening or anything – and what do __**I**__ know about picking locks anyway?_

In frustration I took the pipe and stabbed it straight into a small screen on the cuffs as hard as I could. To my surprise, however, blue sparks began leaping out and finally it felt like the pipe exploded because I felt myself being launched backward and I landed on my back into the red-colored dirt.

"Ow…"

"Ellie! It worked!"

I opened an eye and saw Arcee sitting up and looking at her hands. She turned her head and saw me lying on my back. Without hesitation she reached out and offered her hand. I reached up with both arms and grabbed her thumb, allowing her to pull me up onto my feet. I staggered slightly and still used her hand for support.

"Are you alright?" Arcee asked.

"Fine," I grumbled. "Organics like me just aren't used to shocks like that." I suddenly got an idea. "Arcee, do you have any in-built weapons on you?"

Arcee nodded and her right hand sunk into her forearm and with an alien mechanical sound what looked like a drill with short stubs of spikes came out. The end of it glowed with a slight pink color.

"Figure out how to help Ironhide from here while I work on your feet cuffs," I told her. I then began to head toward the cuffs that were now off of Arcee and on the ground.

Suddenly, a huge black mechanical foot stomped in front of me and the shockwave caused me to fall backwards onto my butt. I looked up and opened my mouth, but all that came out was a squeak.

"I knew it!" Barricade stated, not exactly talking to anyone in particular. "I WAS being followed! Not only by that Autobot, but by an organic as well!"

Arcee's hand grabbed me around my waist and she pulled me back toward her. She raised her drill-like weapon and it shot out a blinding pink energy beam of lightning that hit Barricade square in the chest plate.

He yelled and toppled backwards, landing on the ground so hard that it shook.

"That was close," Arcee said.

I was about to agree when I noticed something: the fighting behind us seemed to have died down.

I turned around fearing the worst.

Two Decepticons were holding Ironhide by each arm. Ironhide was struggling to get away from them, but with no success.

"Ironhide!" I shouted before I could stop myself.

He stopped struggling briefly to look at me, and he looked both surprised and angry. "What are ya doin' here?" he demanded. "I told ya ta stay back!"

Starscream, who was now standing with his arms folded and a bit of purple lubricant coming out of his mouth, looked over at Arcee and I. He noticed me and smiled.

"The organic!" he said loudly. "This is truly a surprise. An organic with the Autobots." He looked over at Ironhide, who was glaring at him with blue optics. "This is surely quite a catch this solar-cycle, isn't it?"

Beside Arcee and I, there was a mechanical groaning and Barricade sat up holding his head.

"Ugh…Blasted glitch," he grumbled at Arcee.

She raised her stinger at him, but Barricades foot stomped on top of it, causing her to scream and sit back onto the ground. I was thrown face first into the dirt.

I pushed myself up and looked at Starscream. He was looking at Ironhide smiling. "It's now hopeless, Autobot," he said sinisterly.

"Maybe for you," Ironhide said quietly," but we're just gettin' started."

"Autobots, engage!"

I looked toward the entrance to the clearing that Ironhide and I were hiding to see where Optimus' voice came from. I saw none other than Prowl, Optimus, and the rest of the autobots – each wielding weapons of different types.

"Autonomous Robots present!" Sunstreaker shouted leaping forward with two black and yellow blaster pistols.

"Feel free to surrender, Decepti-scrap!" Sideswipe added following after his brother and brandishing the same type of weapons, except they were red.

"Over my cold, offline husk!" Starscream yelled angrily. He turned to his cohorts. "Decepticons – attack!"

The Decepticons who were holding Ironhide were the only ones who did not move, while the rest charged. I saw Ironhide break his left arm free from the dark green tank-like 'Con that had him and he reached over to the other, a light brown one, and pulled him over his shoulder, slamming the Decepticon into the dirt.

I heard yelling and looked up, only to see Barricade with a huge mace-like weapon ready to slam down on Arcee and me.

But then I saw yellow beams of lightning-like energy, two alternating beams, hitting Barricade and forcing him back. He finally fell backwards onto the ground, the mace falling well away from us. I saw Bumblebee stopping over him and continuing to hit him with beams from his own stinger-like hands, making sure the Decepticon wouldn't get up.

After a few seconds, he turned his blue optics toward us.

"Arcee!" he said. "Thank Primus you're alright!" But then his gaze drew to me. "Wait – why's Ellie here?"

"Later, Bee," I told him. I gestured toward Arcee's feet cuffs. "Get these things off her, will ya?"

With a nod and without hesitation Bumblebee kneeled by Arcee's feet. He transformed his right hand and began to direct a small beam of energy into the cuffs. After a couple of seconds they opened. Bumblebee offered Arcee his hand and, while still holding me, she took it and we were pulled up.

"Get Ellie out of here," Bumblebee told Arcee turning back toward the battle.

"Bumblebee, I can't just leave you guys to deal with Starscream and the other Decepticons," Arcee argued.

"Yes you can! You know our mission – Ellie needs to be safe!"

"But –"

"DUCK!" I shouted.

Bumblebee grabbed Arcee's shoulders and we all dropped to the ground as the green tank Decepticon flew overhead and landed on top of Barricade just as he was about to get up.

"Phew! Missed us by a mega particle," Bumblebee said pushing himself up to look at the two Decepticons. He looked at me as I lay on Arcee's chest plate with her right hand over me. "What would we do without you, Ellie?"

"Get your head crushed, that's what!" I shouted. "Quit arguing and get it in the game!"

For a moment, Bumblebee stared at me. But then he turned into the black and yellow Camero and opened the driver side door.

"Get in," he told me and Arcee set me on the ground allowing me to do as I was told. I ran to Bumblebee and got in. But as I reached for the belt it pulled itself down and clicked into the buckle by itself.

"Careful, Arcee," Bumblebee told the pink Autobot.

"I'm not a sparkling!" Arcee said to him annoyed, but I noticed that she was smiling.

Without waiting for a word from Bumblebee she ran toward the battle, stingers out and glowing with pink energy. I saw her skid to a stop beside Sideswipe and Sunstreaker and begin to fire with them at a dark-gray Decepticon with helicopter blades folded like a fan on his back.

The seatbelt suddenly tightened pulling me to the seat and away from the window.

"Stay down and hang on!" Bumblebee said intensely. "This is going to get crazy!"

The tires dug in the dirt as they worked to gain traction. He was a sports car rather than a muscle car like Ironhide. After finally finding the right gear we sped off. But we weren't going Bumblebee's full speed, I knew, because we were never really going straight. He had to weave through the stacked up piles of poorly sorted junk and scrap and still manage to go fast enough to get me away safely.

_This is wrong,_ I thought to myself. _They shouldn't be dimming their force just to take me away to safety._

"Bumblebee," I said quietly, but loud enough for him to hear, "stop."

For a moment I thought he hadn't heard me, but then the wheel turned and we went in between two close-together stacks of scrap before Bumblebee hit the brakes, causing us to stop.

"What is it?" he asked, his mechanical voice hushed through the radio. "Did you see a 'Con?"

"No," I told him quickly, "but I need to get out."

Bumblebee jumped slightly like he was surprised. "What? Why?"

I leaned forward in my seat closer to the radio. "You've got to go help Arcee and Ironhide and everyone else," I said. "Remember, I'm not supposed to be here in the first place. It's my fault that Arcee got kidnapped."

Bumblebee was quiet as if he was considering it for a moment. "What about you?" he asked finally, worry being clear in his voice.

"I'll hide," I replied. "Remember, I may be a living thing but I'm not nearly as big as you guys. I can hide a whole lot easier than you…" I suddenly stopped. "Well…eh…in the retrospect of size difference. Not the whole… 'Robots in Disguise' thing…"

"No, I know what you mean," Bumblebee assured me. He sighed. "Okay. Go hide." The door opened and the seatbelt released, retracting with a zipping sound. "I'm gonna go help Arcee. Don't get yourself caught or else Ironhide's gonna have MY hide."

I nodded and hopped out onto the redish-brown dirt. Almost instantly Bumblebee's door closed and he backed out of the opening. "One of us'll come back for you later," he told me and then he zoomed off.

As soon as he was out of sight I turned toward the scrap pile, trying to figure out how I was going to hide. At my feet I saw a sheet of aluminum that was a square about half my height. I reached down and picked it up, careful not to cut myself on it. I could use it like a door once I found a crevice to crouch in.

Looking around I indeed found a perfect spot. About five feet above my head that resided on a ledge, yet half-buried by the rest of the pile, was a huge cement pipe that was wide enough for two people my size to cram into. Plenty room enough for me.

But then there was the problem of trying to reach it. Nine and a quarter foot up was just too tall for me to just grab the ledge and pull myself up.

I sighed. "Talk about being a toddler and trying to get the cookie jar," I mumbled to myself quietly.

Suddenly, I got an idea. My dad had told me that when I was younger, about three for four years old, we had a box of fruit snacks in the cupboard that was attached to the wall by the fridge. Naturally, being the kid who wanted the sweets, I would try to find a way to get up onto the counter so that I could reach the cupboard. I would use stuff that I was able to move to climb up like a staircase.

That applied perfectly in this situation. Setting the sheet by the ledge I got to work.

After a while of moving stuff I had made a poorly put together staircase. I mainly used big steel barrels, setting one on its side with a couple cement pieces to stop it from rolling and a couple more barrels set upside-down so that I could stand on them. I sighed as I looked at how they were set. I wasn't sure if the cement pieces would hold the sideways barrel and one of the others looked so rusted that its bottom could cave in when it had too much pressure on it. But I had to take the chance.

I started by getting the aluminum sheet as high as I could. Setting one edge on the top of an upturned barrel and pushing it up allowed it to stay there while I climbed up to it. I went to the sideways barrel and wiggled it to see how sturdy it was. After kicking the cement pieces to make sure it wouldn't move I decided to start.

I crawled on my knees onto the barrel. It still moved slightly so I make sure to make my movements slow. Using the other barrels as support I carefully got onto my feet, balancing my weight where I could control the barrel. I slowly lifted my knee onto one of the two upturned barrels and pulled myself up, letting the sideways barrel roll right over the cement and away from me.

_Okay,_ I thought looking back at it. _At least if the whole thing collapses as soon as I get up the Autobots should be tall enough to get me down._

I was on top of the barrel that wasn't about to fall apart, but to be safe is till straddled my feet to the edges so that the drum wouldn't collapse on me. I reached to the side and as carefully as I could I grabbed the aluminum sheet. I pushed it up on the ledge, with relief that I wouldn't have to lift it over my head anymore.

Now it was my turn. I bent my knees and quickly extended them, getting me airborne. I threw my upper body over the ledge and caught it with my elbows as the two barrels toppled below me. Using my feet to claw at the pile to get a grip I pushed myself up.

After a quick check into the pipe, which was my ultimate destination, I crawled in backwards and grabbed the aluminum sheet leaning it against my hidey-hole opening.

I sighed and rested my head on my folded arms. I was safe, which was what the Autobots wanted, so I was pretty pleased with myself.

I had dozed off a bit and woke up to moving mechanical parts and heavy footsteps hitting the ground causing the cement pipe around me to shake.

I sighed. _About time_, I thought. I got up on my knees and began to crawl out.

But just as I was about to move the aluminum door I heard a voice.

"Blasted Starscream," I heard the Cybertronian grumble. "Sending one such as me to find that little insect." I instantly scooted backwards, accidentally ripping my pants and scraping my knee. I pressed my lips together to keep from making any sounds. "That yellow glitch left with her, but then came back. Where could he have left her?"

I swallowed, trying to keep my mind off of my knee and listening to see if I could estimate the Decepticon's distance from me.

I heard him kick one of the barrels as he walked by my cement hiding place. He began moving stuff around as he searched for me. I was glad that my staircase had fallen apart, or the Decepticon might have put two and two together.

After what seemed like a long time I finally heard the Decepticon turn and begin to walk away.

_Whew,_ I thought relieved. _That was close._

Suddenly, I heard a trilling sequence of beeps coming from inside the cement pipe. I forgot to turn my phone off.

_Crap, crap, crap!_ I thought loudly, clawing for my phone. I rolled over and pulled it out of my pants pocket. I opened it and pressed it against my ear.

"Hello? Hello?" I asked in a hushed voice. But there was no answer. I pulled back the phone to look at it. It was a text message. I would check it later.

I closed the phone and held it to my chest. I held my breath and listened to see if the Decepticon had heard it. I sighed in relief when I didn't hear anything. I was in luck.

I looked at the phone, wondering who in the world would text me at this incredibly inconvenient time. It was my mom.

"How r u doing?"

I grumbled at the irony. If only she knew. I hit the reply button and entered in my own message.

"Im fine."

Before my mom could reply back I had to make sure that my phone wouldn't go off if the Decepticon decided to come prowling back by me again.

I took a deep breath and sat there on my back, my phone sitting on my chest. My knee stung a bit, but I ignored it. I just kept my mind on waiting and listening for the Autobots.

After a while of waiting I soon heard the hum of a Camero and the roar of a diesel truck engine. It seemed like it took them a while, but I had chatted with my mom to pass the time.

I heard the transforming sound as the two had apparently turned into their robot forms.

"Aright, ya little glitch," I heard Ironhide growl, "where is she?"

"I-I don't know!" Bumblebee stammered. "I left her here and…and she said that she would hide so that I could help finish the battle!"

"If I see one little particle on her organic form harmed I'll turn that blasted vehicle form of yers into an ugly unrecognizable hunk of scrap!" Ironhide threatened.

I needed to get out of the pipe. Stowing my phone in my pocket I rolled over and began to crawl out. I pushed down the aluminum door I had made and poked my head out.

"Over here, Ironhide."

The large black and silver Autobot, who was holding the smaller 'Bot by the shoulder and looked like he was about ready to punch him, turned his head until his blue optics rested on me. He instantly released Bumblebee and hurried over, the yellow 'Bot staggering slightly from Ironhide's grip.

"Ellie!" he said. "Are ya alright?"

I folded my arms underneath myself and smiled at him. "Yep!" I told him. If he found out that a Decepticon had been close by looking for me, I feared that Bumblebee would find out exactly what kind of "ugly unrecognizable hunk of scrap" he would be.

"Good work, Autobots," Optimus told everyone. "We have successfully rescued Arcee, and hurt the Decepticon ranks greatly."

We had all gone back to the Autobot place of refuge back in the forest. It seemed to have gotten dark. Ratchet was making rounds to everyone, scanning them and checking for injuries. For my convenience everyone had their headlights turned on in their robot forms.

"Hah! Did you see Starscream run?" Sideswipe asked everyone.

"Yeah!" Sunstreaker agreed. "He practically had his tail between his legs!"

"They're brushin' up on their human phrases," Ironhide whispered to me. "Still just as annoyin' if ya ask me."

I chuckled slightly as I sat on his shoulder.

"Ellie?"

Ratchet had come to Ironhide and was holding up his hand, indicating for me to get on. I complied, sliding off onto the medical officer's palm. A magnifying glass of some kind sprouted from the side of his helmet and stopped in front of his optic. For a moment he looked at my knee.

"Not too bad, considering the knowledge I've downloaded on organic injuries," he stated. "There is no fluid, though I would advise cleaning it as soon as possible. Show me your arms, please."

I did as he told me and for the first time I noticed small cuts and scrapes littering my skin.

"Those may need some dressing," the medical 'Bot said.

"I must've got them while getting to my hiding place," I stated, trying to be helpful.

Ratchet's magnifying glass retracted and he looked at me. "What were you doing out there anyway?"

"Uh, it was me," Ironhide said before I could answer. "I knew she would've wanted ta help lookin' for Arcee. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have noticed that 'Con and we wouldn't have followed him ta that scrap yard."

"It's true," Prowl added, inspecting a long bow staff weapon, which was his. "I was with them. Ironhide sent me back to get Optimus and everyone else while he followed the Decepticon."

Optimus turned to me and I stood straight to see what he needed to say. "We thank you," he told me. "We could not have done this without you."

"Don't worry about it," I said shrugging. "Arcee was in trouble, so I acted." Optimus nodded at me and, if he didn't have the face mask, I'm sure he would have been smiling.

"Indeed."

"Yay, Ellie!" the twins suddenly shouted excitedly.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Really," I said, "I'm glad I could help."

Jazz went to stand by the Autobot leader. "Optimus," he said, "we need to make sure this kinda thing don't happen again. We can't have Autobots bein' snatched up by Decepticons."

I looked over at Prowl and I could see he was smiling. "I thing now's the time to test out the new holographic system Ratchet has been working on."

Ratchet sighed as he handed me back to Ironhide. "I'm a doctor, Prime, not an engineer," he said turning to Optimus. "I don't know if the holographic images of organics will be absolutely fool proof."

"Then let's take a scan and see," Arcee said, plucking me out of Ironhide's hand. I looked around and saw that all optics were on me.

"W-wait, me? You're all going to project a picture of me?"

"Just for this test," Ratchet told me. He walked up to Arcee and I saw two wires grow from his arm and plugging themselves into hers. After a minute they retracted. "There," he said. "I have downloaded into you the programming necessary to scan Ellie's form and project a customizable version to reduce confusion, should Ellie be required to ride with us."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Sunstreaker interrupted a bit impatiently. "Just get to testing it already!" His brother nodded in agreement.

I smiled and shrugged. "Alright," I said, "what do I need to do?"

Arcee set me down on the ground and smiled. "Just stand there and look cute," she told me.

I stood straight and Arcee reached up and tapped the side of her helmet. From her forehead a blue beam shot out. It flattened itself and moved down from my head to my sneakers. The beam then disappeared.

I looked up at Arcee. "What now?"

"Give me a minute." The pink robot brought up her arm and began typing a short sequence into a keypad that appeared. For a brief moment the blue beam reappeared.

The next thing I knew I was staring into the face of a redish-brown-haired girl with blue eyes. Curious, I reached out to touch her arm. When I did, however, she flickered slightly and I instantly drew back. She was just like the real thing.

"It-It's just like me!"

"Then it's time for the second test," Ratchet stated. He looked at Arcee. "Enter in the aging sequence I have you earlier."

Arcee nodded and the holographic me disappeared. A second later it was replaced by an eighteen-year-old girl whose hair was now in a high ponytail tied with a pink scrunchie. She was a whole foot and a half taller than me. She now wore a pair of pink capris pants and a black shirt with a pink vest over it. She also wore a pair of pink sandals and I couldn't help but look at her. It was almost like I was looking at my mom when she was in high school. The only difference from her was that the eyes were blue and shined differently. The hair wasn't brown, of course, and it curled rather than being straight.

"Wow," I said amazed. "It's like looking at my mom, but looking at my dad, too."

Arcee perked up slightly. "Your…father?" she asked a little hesitantly.

I nodded. "Yeah," I said. "My mom has brown hair and it doesn't curl like that. This thing's got my dad's eyes, too." I suddenly stopped. "Oh, crap… MOM! She's gonna freak when I come home! I was supposed to be home like…" I quickly pulled out my phone and checked it, "… an hour and a half ago!"

Arcee nodded, still looking distant. The hologram disappeared and she looked over at Ironhide. "Would you mind taking her home? I…uh…need to talk to Optimus about something."

Ironhide folded his arms and glared at her. "Why me?"

"You drove her here, you drive her back," Arcee replied.

"Fine," Ironhide grumbled frowning.

He quickly turned into his truck form and the door opened. "Get in."

Starting by his commanding tone I instantly did as I was told. The door closed and we left the Autobots in the forest clearing. When I looked back I saw that their lights had all turned off, so I guessed they were using a night vision sitting of some kind.

There was an awkward silence on the way back to my house. I didn't know what to say to Ironhide and I guessed he didn't know what to say either.

"Thanks for helpin' this solar-cycle," he said finally startling me a bit. "Though I didn't expect it to go the way it did."

"I-It was nothing," I said, unsure of what to say.

"It was something," Ironhide told me.

I sighed and smiled. "Glad I could help," I said. That was all I could think of to say.

The rest of the trip was quiet. When we reached my house I just simply got out and Ironhide drove away. I sighed and slowly walked up the walkway to my house. I knew I was in for a whole world of trouble. But at least it was nothing compared to fearing for my life.

I opened the door as quietly as I could. It was dark, so my mom was probably upstairs. But just in case I grabbed a jacket from the coat rack and put it on, hiding the cuts on my arms. It was too dark to see the color of the jacket but I know it was my pale green one because it was light and soft.

I quietly went to the kitchen and headed for a closet that resided by the pantry. Ratchet DID say that I needed to treat my cuts and scrapes as soon as I could.

After stuffing my pants pockets with band aids, a tube of ointment and some packages of cleansing wipes I decided to head to my room.

I carefully began to go up the stairs, them creaking quietly beneath me. I just had to make it to my room without waking Mom up and I was good until she came home from work tomorrow. Then was when I was most likely going to get grounded for all eternity and get the lecture of a lifetime.

_Well,_ I thought to myself, _it's better than getting squished by Decepticons, I suppose._

I made it to my room and quietly opened the door.

As I did, however, the lamp by my bed suddenly flicked on. For a moment I had to stay still to allow my eyes to adjust, but then my vision came back and I saw my mom sitting on my bed in my dad's old blue and red robe with the yellow D on the left side of the chest. My mom was glaring at me, not even bothering to hide her anger.

"You're two and a half hours over your curfew," she informed me. "Do you have ANY idea on what I went through wondering where you were?"

_Pacing around, trying to decide whether to call the cops or not,_ I couldn't help but think.

"I'm sorry, Mom," I said. "My friends and I were kinda…occupied…and I guess I just lost track of time." I sighed. "Sorry," I said again.

Mom's eyes narrowed. "You knew perfectly well the consequences of staying out late. I've told you and told you…"

_So much that I was worried about breaking curfew every day,_ I thought.

"…so you can't complain at all when I tell you that you're grounded from going to either Marcie's or Emma's or any of your friends' houses for a week. No exceptions whatsoever."

I was tempted to say "So, nothing about going to the forest with a bunch of transforming robots, right?" but then she'd REALLY think I was up to something with a lame-a** story like that.

I nodded. "Alright, Mom." I gave out a yawn, though I wasn't really tired because of the two times I dozed off that day. "Let's get to sleep," I said with a tired tone. "I've got school tomorrow."

Mom agreed and she left my room without a word.

I sighed, happy that the short but uncomfortable lecture was over. My leg had begun to sting like crazy because I needed to clean the scrape.

I walked to my dresser and started searching through the drawers for a spare set of pants. It was a miracle that Mom hadn't noticed the gaping hole in my pants and the gross scrape.

I pulled out a pair of jeans when I thought I heard something outside of my window. Did Ironhide or one of the other Autobots come to check on me? Curious, I slung my pants over my shoulder and began to head for the window.

As soon as I got there, though, my view was blocked by something. A large, blood-red optic was gleaming at me.

"Hello, fleshling."


	5. Leavin' on a Jet Plane

**Chapter 5**

I stepped away as quickly as I could, considering the sheer terror that seemed to flood through me. Starscream was at my house. I didn't know how, but he somehow knew where I lived.

"H-how did you…?"

"I followed you," Starscream answered with spine-tingling pleasure, "just as you followed Barricade." He leaned back from the window enough for me to see his face. He was smiling. "There aren't any Autobots here to save you now, meatbag."

Without bothering to drop the spare jeans I had picked out from my dresser, I turned toward my door and started running. Behind me I heard glass breaking and wood snapping. He was reaching through my bedroom window.

I reached toward the doorknob, but I felt metal fingers snake around my body and tighten, stopping me in my tracks.

"N-no!" I shouted, trying to wriggle myself out of Starscream's fist. "Let me go!" I kicked around as I struggled and banged against the door so hard I heard the wood creaking. Slowly he began to pull me backward toward the window that I couldn't help but cry "MOM!"

Suddenly, the door opened and my mother burst into the room. I stopped struggling for a moment to look at her, and I saw the horror in her face. What she was seeing was her thirteen-year-old daughter being taken by a huge alien robot.

"Mom!" I begged before I could stop myself. "HELP!"

With little hesitation, my mother rushed back from the room. I wished that she wouldn't try to do anything against Starscream and would just hide, but she was where I got my determination from. If she had anything to say about it, my mother was going to try to rescue me.

_G**, I'm such an idiot!_ I scolded myself as Starscream extracted his hand from my house. Why did I beg for Mom to help me? I knew she couldn't do anything, but she was still going to do all in her power to do as I asked.

Starscream stepped from my house and turned. I heard a small explosion and when I looked down I saw the jet engines on his feet fire up and begin to lift us from the ground. Though I hated being with Starscream, I hated more the fact that he could easily drop me to a quick and painful death just from his sheer height if he wanted, much less from the sky as he flew.

I sighed, trying to calm myself. That didn't work too well. _I'm toast._

As we flew right over my neighborhood, lights began to flick on to see what was happening and why what seemed like a jet flew over their houses.

I sighed again and turned my head toward Starscream's face. "How did you know I was with the Autobots?" I asked. "How did you know I wasn't just some human who was in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

Starscream's optics turned to me briefly and he smirked. "I believe this will be enough of an answer for you, insect." He showed me his other hand, and for a moment I thought he was going to shoot my head off with his cannon. But then I noticed he was holding something between two fingers. It may have been dark out there, but I could still see what it was. It was a spiral notebook with the name ELLIE decoratively drawn on the cover.

"Wha…?" But I knew it was really my own fault. I had brought my notebook to the junkyard…and I left it where anyone could pick it up. Maybe it was the Decepticon that was looking for me then. I dropped my head. "G**, I'm an idiot," I said quietly.

To my dismay Starscream started laughing, which made me feel even worse. "Megatron will praise me for acquiring you right out from the Autobots' servos!" he shouted, incredibly pleased with himself. "No one can stop me now!" He continued to laugh, which constantly tugged at my nerves, but I couldn't do anything.

"Now that's where you make a blue, mate!"

I was surprised by the mechanical Australian accent that seemed to be coming from behind us, along with a set of its own jet engines. I looked back and I could see a red and white jet-like vehicle coming after us. Starscream looked back and saw it too, and he looked almost smug.

"Jetfire," he said stopping and hovering in mid-air, the other jet following suit. "Old friend, what brings you here to this backwater planet?"

"Mind your own bizzo, Starscream," the jet known as Jetfire said with his incredibly thick accent in disgust. "Now, I've just sprung ya and I'd advise letting the sheila go, you rusted whacker!"

I looked back up at Starscream to see his response, and to my horror he was smiling.

"Gladly."

The metal hand around me instantly loosened and I slipped straight through. I tried to grab onto his hand, but I was falling too fast that I only got my jeans that I was carrying. I didn't even try to refrain from screaming.

"Hold on, spunk!" I heard the jet shout. "Jetfire's comin'!"

I closed my eyes wishing it would end. As the air around me I wished that I would either wake up, or die. I was scared, and I was done for.

But then I felt something metal gently closing over me. My speed began to decrease until I finally stopped falling, resting on the metal. Slowly, I opened my eyes and found myself sitting in the cupped white and red-finger-tipped hands of a Cybertronian. I looked up into the blue, almost purple, optics of the Transformers.

"Boy, that could've been a nasty fall," he said half-jokingly. I stared up at him, my adrenaline still going making me too scared to speak. He smiled down at me a friendly and gentle smile. "No worries, spunky, you're safe now."

I held my jeans closer to myself and finally caught my breath. "Thanks," I said breathing deeply. "You an Autobot?"

"Too right!" Jetfire said, his optics gleaming. "I rocked up via Optimus' orders an' was within cooee when I caught whiff o' Starscream. Thought I'd see what the dipstick was up to an' I saw you. Talk about a lucky break, ah?"

For a moment I had to thing hard to translate the thick accent in my mind, but then I understood.

"Well," I said sighing, "let's get back to Optimus before Starscream comes back. I'm betting he'll want to hear about this."

"Too right, spunky," Jetfire agreed, looking around seriously. "Now let's get going flat out like a lizard drinking."

Jetfire didn't turn into his jet form, as he would have dropped me only finishing what Starscream had tried to do earlier. Instead he flew high up out of sight and headed toward the Autobot camp, which he said he would find with the other Autobots' signals. The whole time I sat in his cupped hands quietly and tried not to get too scared. It wasn't that I was afraid of heights—I never was—it was simply the fact that earlier I could have been falling to my death.

After a while I noticed that the city lights began to disappear and I knew we were nearing the forest. I also knew that Ironhide wouldn't be too happy about what happened.

Jetfire stopped and we hovered for a few moments before he began to lower himself, using the thrusters on his feet, into the treetops of the dense forest. Then was when it struck me that this was the perfect place for a base, as it was remote and there wouldn't even be a way to bet a view from the air.

"Well, this is quite beyond the black stump," Jetfire said as he landed into the clearing. "Bloody quiet."

Slowly vehicles that were hidden by the dark had begun to turn on their headlights, making it clear that there were eight of them surrounding us. They all then transformed quickly, showing the eight Autobots all looking at Jetfire.

Optimus stepped forward and extended his hand. "Welcome to Earth, Jetfire."

I moved to Jetfire's left hand so that he could shake. "Glad to be here, big boomer," he said cheerfully. "When you dobbed me to come I didn't dilly-dally and was off like prawns in the sun."

Optimus's gaze went to Jetfire's other hand and his optics widened in surprise. If he didn't have a face mask I was sure his metal jaw would be hung open. "Ellie?" he asked. "What are you doing here?" Out of each corner of my eyes I saw both Ironhide and Arcee perk up slightly more than the others as they heard Optimus address me.

"Well, I was on my way here when I heard the donk of a jet, aside from me," Jetfire began before I could answer. "I went to see what was going on and I saw Starscream with the ankle-biter here."

"WHAT!"

Everyone drew their attention to Ironhide, who was completely oblivious to it and only had his optics on me. It scared the crap out of me because he looked incredibly angry.

He instantly began marching toward Jetfire and me, and I wished that I wasn't three stories up or I would have been able to run, and maybe even hide. I shrunk back as far as I could as the heavy black and silver bulk approached.

"How. Did. He. Find you?" Ironhide growled lowly, but still gut-wrenchingly.

"H-he said he followed us," I tried to tell him without my voice croaking. I gave a gulp and quickly looked at my feet. "He found my notebook…I dropped it at the junk yard." I stole a glance at Ironhide and noticed he looked slightly strained—and extremely angry. "Ironhide," I said quietly, "I'm sorry."

To my surprise he turned around, but he let out a loud and filthy combination of both human and what sounded like Cybertronian curses. "How in Primus' name could I have missed it!"

"Wow," Jetfire said in slight amazement. "Quite the foul mouth on the old bloke, huh?"

"Watch yer vocal processors, ya d*** jet!"

"Ironhide…enough."

Ironhide seemed surprised at his leader's input. He looked at him. "But Prime, I—"

"Enough," Optimus told him again.

Ironhide didn't bother to argue. His arms relaxed at his sides and he dropped his head slightly, beginning to walk toward the edge of the clearing.

"Ironhide, I'm really sorry," I called after him. "If I'd known that this was gonna happen I would have done what I could to stop it."

He stopped briefly, but he didn't turn around. He then continued on into the forest, Arcee breaking rank and going after him with Bumblebee not very far behind.

Optimus looked over at me. "Ellie…"

"Let him cool down," I said letting my legs hang over the side of Jetfire's hand. "He's stressed. I'm sure he's not thinking entirely straight." I thought about when I begged Mom to help me. "Heaven knows I wasn't," I added quietly. I suddenly gasped. "Oh no!" I exclaimed. All the Autobots looked at me in alarm. "Mom! Starscream knows where I live! We have to get her or she could get hurt!"

"No worries, spunk!" Jetfire said, startling me a bit. "I'll just be off and het her and she'll be apples!"

I had to stare at him. "What?"

His optics blinked. "I mean she'll be alright," he clarified.

"That suggestion, however, is out of the question," Optimus said suddenly.

For a moment I was going to ask if he had his processor plugged in right or something, but then I understood. "He's right," I told Jetfire. "Mom probably called the police, er…human law enforcement, and I'm sure that a big jet would draw too much attention."

"Oh yeah, too right," Jetfire responded, considering it for a moment. "Well, maybe the booze bus can get her then." He looked over at Prowl, who was looking at him in well hidden annoyance.

I sighed. The nick-name probably had something to do with police and drunk drivers.

But it occurred to me that Jetfire had a point. "Yeah, Prowl should be the one to go," I agreed. "There was bound to be police there and he could say that he's taking her to the station to fill out a report or something."

"Then perhaps you should accompany him," Ratchet said suddenly. "Once far enough away from your home you could reveal yourself and show that you are alright and intact."

"Indeed," Prowl concurred. "I'm not particularly fond of the idea of having Ellie's mother in my vehicle form when she begins to—how should I say it?—emotionally deteriorate."

"Alright, alright, I get the idea," I said quickly. "Do you have a hologram human ready?"

Prowl nodded. "I do."

The twins, who had been oddly quiet, then came up to Jetfire and Sideswipe pulled me from his red and white hand. Looking up at them, I could tell they had something clever to say.

"Looks like Ellie's got a date with Prowl," Sunstreaker said with a grin, his brother snickering quietly.

I sighed. Prowl said nothing.

**Aussie Slang Help (In order of appearance):**  
make a blue- make a mistake  
mate- pal, bud, dude, etc.  
mind your own bizzo- mind your own business  
sprung- caught doing something bad  
sheila- woman, girl, female  
whacker- idiot; somebody who talks drivel, someone you have little patience with, etc.  
spunk- a good-looking person (of either gender)  
too right!- Affirmative! Yep! etc.  
rocked up- turned up; arrived  
within cooee- nearby  
flat out like a lizard drinking- to do something fast  
beyond the black stump- a long way away; the back of nowhere  
bloody- very  
big boomer- large male kangaroo (Jetfire's using it as a nickname for Optimus' leadership role)  
dob (to somebody)- inform somebody  
prawns in the sun- to leave quickly  
donk- engine, motor  
she'll be apples- it'll be alright  
booze bus- police vehicle used for catching drunk drivers


	6. Police Officers

**Chapter 6**

I sat in the back of the police cruiser, which was really Prowl in disguise. I was told to stay low, which I didn't bother to argue with. I may have been going to help get my mom to safety, but I still felt like I was only going along for the ride; like when I was with Ironhide back at the junkyard. The metal separation barrier that separated the driver's seat from the back seat in the police cruiser made me feel slightly like I was being enclosed to keep from interfering. I HATED feeling detached. But I managed to keep myself from getting TOO annoyed with it.

Prowl and I had left the base only a half an hour before, even when Ironhide didn't return to the group with Arcee and Bumblebee. My spare jeans, which I cad miraculously been able to hold onto during my kidnapping and rescue, and the medical supplies I had stuffed in my pockets back at home I left with Ratchet. I didn't entirely trust the twins with my stuff. They might have let their curiosity run away with them and lose everything or destroy it.

We were still a good fifteen minutes away from my house when Prowl had apparently decided to stop. He pulled over from the back road that we were on and stopped in the gravel, turning off his headlights.

"Wait—why are we stopping?" I asked not bothering to hide my impatience. The last thirty minutes had already felt like hours and I wasn't too keen on making it any longer than it needed to be.

"Just wait a nanoclicks or two," Prowl told me in his usual calm, composure-inducing voice. "I require to meet with Jazz before proceeding to your home."

I was a bit confused. "Jazz?" I asked. "But he was at the base, wasn't he? Couldn't you have talked to him then?"

"Perhaps you were not paying attention," Prowl sighed. "There were only eight of us. Jazz was out gathering holoforms for all of us aside from Arcee. It made more sense to have one of us go rather than all going out for our own individual holoform."

"So you pretty much LIED to me?" I asked.

"I did not say that," Prowl replied. "Assuming how long it takes for Jazz to accomplish a task I was merely implying that I would be ready when we reached your house. I have already notified Jazz of this meeting."

I grumbled quietly but slumped back in my seat, folding my arms. "Well, when he gets here, make it quick," I told him. "I really want to get my mom before the Decepticons get a chance to do something horrible to her!"

"Your concern is understood."

I mumbled a pout, but did nothing else.

After about a minute I heard the unmistakable hum of a Solstice sports car, and the inside of Prowl's cab lit up from the approaching headlights. Jazz was coming from the other end of the road and I was sure I could hear rap music being played loudly from him. The 'bot sure liked his music.

"What up, Prowl?" he asked aloud, there being no one else around to hear him.

"Would you please turn that noise off?" Prowl asked him in a slightly annoyed tone. "On this planet there are laws against a loud stereo system. And I'm certain you'd be in trouble with it on Cybertron as well."

I sunk down in my seat as the rap music faded out. "Hurry," I urged Prowl under my breath.

"Ah, yes. Jazz, I require my holoform immediately."

"What's the hurry, man?" Jazz asked.

"Optimus will explain back at the base," Prowl told him. "Right now, I need the holoform."

"Please remain hidden," Prowl reminded me, tilting the holoform's head toward the back seat. "Let me handle things for the moment."

We were at my house silently waiting outside, easily blending in with the other two black and white police cars that were already there. I lay on the floor of the back seat keeping out of sight.

I was pretty impressed at how good Prowl made his holoform look. It looked like a man in his mid-thirties with neatly combed brown hair and bright blue eyes. From what I could see, it was wearing a dark blue button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the police insignia on each shoulder, just like what was on his Autobot form. He had on a brass nametag that said "Prowl" on it. He looked just like a police officer from a movie, where the character was supposed to look good.

I was on my back with my hands resting on my stomach. Very little control, and maybe even Prowl's locked back doors, were preventing me from running straight up the walkway into my house and hugging my mom like I was never, ever going to see her again. I should know what the feeling was like; I had felt it only more than an hour ago.

A couple minutes passed and I heard prowl rolling down the passenger window. I lifted my head and saw the holoform leaning toward it.

"Do not worry, I'll take the mother to the station," he told someone outside with the holoform.

I saw a police officer's face appear in the window and I instantly dropped my head and closed my eyes, praying that he wouldn't look in the back seat.

"You sure, mac?" the officer asked in a Brooklyn accent.

"I am sure," Prowl's holoform replied. "You wait here for Crime Scene Investigators to arrive, and I'll take her to the station for a report and a complete description of Ellie."

For a moment the officer was quiet. "Ellie?" he asked.

Prowl's vehicle mode made a low grumbling sound. He wasn't supposed to know my name, and he goofed by saying it. "The…daughter," he responded through the holoform slowly. "Sorry to confuse you. I…I know this family; particularly Ellie."

"Oh man, I'm sorry," the officer said sincerely. "Go on and take her, just let me bring her out, mac."

"Thank you," Prowl said. I saw the holoform lean back against the metal separator; much like a human would when waiting for something or someone.

My first thought was to yell at him for the small mistake he had made, but I was able to keep my mouth shut. I tried breathing to calm myself down. I knew I was getting annoyed from waiting, but I almost had my mom. Soon, she would know that I was safe and we would be back with the Autobots.

It felt like a half an hour, rather than a few minutes, when I heard the front passenger car door open.

"Now, ma'am, this officer's gonna take you to the station," the same officer from before said in his accent. "Are you sure you have your wallet? You won't be able to stay here while we process the scene, and since you don't have any nearby relatives you should check into a hotel room."

"I-I'll be fine." The sound of my mom's voice got me a little bit excited, but I strained to remain motionless.

I could almost imagine the officer nod in a gesture of affirmation. "All right, take care," he told her.

My mom didn't reply as I saw her tall from slide into the passenger seat, a grocery bag crinkling. The officer outside shut the door and my mom remained motionless.

"Seatbelt," Prowl calmly reminded her.

Mom silently did as she was told and when I heard the buckle click Prowl started the engine and began pulling away from my house.

I gulped hard, but as quietly as I could. We were still too close to my house and I could still be spotted if I revealed myself then. But I wanted so desperately for my mom to know I was safe.

Interrupting my thoughts, she suddenly began to say something. "Before she was taken, Ellie had come home later than usual," she said quietly. "I didn't know what was going on; she had never come home so late." She sighed. "But since her dad died, I guess I've become…overprotective. The last time I actually spoke to her was when I was telling her that she was in trouble and was grounded." Mom took in a breath, but it seemed strained and it was like it tore at my heart.

"I left the room for a few minutes," she continued, "and I heard her scream and bang on the door. I went back and I saw this…this…huge MONSTER robot thing reaching through the wall and grabbing her, pulling her back. She screamed for me to help…but I didn't know what to do. I never had the battle-ready action her father did and my mind just went blank. I ran to do the only thing I could think of and called you guys. But when I got back to her room…" my mom gasped quietly, "she was gone!" She began sobbing quietly and I was practically biting my lip and sitting on my hands to keep from doing anything.

"Trust me," Prowl told her, "you helped us greatly by calling in your law enforcement agency. Otherwise, retrieving you would most likely have caused the drawing of attention from unwanted forces."

"What?" Mom asked quietly.

Now I was physically sweating. _Come on, Prowl_, I grumbled in my mind. _Let me up! Please!_

"You would not have been safe in the hands of law enforcement," Prowl continued. "The enemy that took your daughter is also after you. We were instructed by our leader to protect your family and keep you safe. They want you for a reason that is unknown to me."

I suddenly stopped shifting around. _What?_ my mind mimicked my mom's previous statement. _Want us? But…what for?_

"My leader instructed me not to tell you that," Prowl said, "but I believe you have a right to know of what was going on."

"I don't understand," Mom said quietly. "'My law enforcement'? You say that as if you're not a part of it."

Prowl turned the holoform's head toward her. "I'm not." I saw the holoform flicker slightly.

Mom let out a scream and instantly drew away from him. "What are you?"

I immediately sat up from the floor and grabbed the separator, pulling my face close to it. "No, Mom, it's okay!" I said loudly over her shrieks. "It's okay, he's good! Mom, we're fine!"

Mom stopped screaming and looked toward me, the last of her fear evaporation and turning into surprise. "Ellie!" she turned around and brought her face close to the separator. "Honey, are you alright?" She looked as if she could rip out the metal dividing us with her bare hands just to get to me.

"Mom, I'm fine," I told her smiling widely, my previous annoyance totally gone. "Don't worry, we're safe now. I'm just glad that Screamer didn't get you before we did!"

"H-how'd you get away?"

"A friend of mine happened to spot the Decepticon that took me and stopped us before we were long gone," I answered as quickly as I could.

"Decepticon?"

"I'll tell you all about it later," I said. "I'm just glad you're alright!"

Mom smiled at me, and I could see her eyes getting wet. "Me too, Hon. I'm happy to see you're safe." She leaned her forehead to the separator and I could hear her crying quietly.

"Aw, Mom," I said, mirroring her.

"You okay, Mom?" I asked opening the passenger door of Prowl from the outside for her.

My mom smiled and nodded sheepishly at me. Clutching the grocery bag, she grabbed my extended hand and I helped her out of the car.

We had made it to the forest and Prowl had instructed us to get out. I first noticed that nobody seemed to be there, but I kept the observation to myself.

"Mom," I said tilting my head slightly, "what's with the bag?"

"Oh, they had me grab a few things before I had to leave," my mom replied.

I smiled slightly. "Couldn't you have used a suitcase?"

Mom laughed quietly. "I suppose I could have." She sighed. "I only wish I had known that I would be seeing you, or I would have gotten some of your stuff as well."

"Nah, don't worry about it," I told her waving my hand. "I've got a pair of jeans and some other stuff, so I'm pretty much good right now."

"If I may interrupt," Prowl said suddenly, transforming into his tall robot form beside us, headlights still on, "I will need you two to follow me closely, as I cannot proceed in my alternate form because of the terrain." He stopped suddenly when he looked down at us. I looked over at my mom to see why. She was staring up at Prowl in the strangest look of awe I had ever seen on anyone. I was used to giant robots and I didn't even think about how she would react if she saw one.

"Mom?" I asked. "Are you okay?"

I heard her gulp and she nodded. "Yeah…I'll be fine," she almost squeaked.

"Very well," Prowl said turning his head forward. "Now if you two will follow me please." He began to walk toward the thicker part of the forest. When Mom didn't move I grabbed her forearm and pulled her along after the Autobot.

It seemed like we had been walking for a while and my feet had begun to hurt. Mom began to get slower and at one point she tripped over something in the dark, grabbing my arm for support. She was getting tired, I could tell.

Prowl stopped and I saw his head turn and his blue optics shined down on us. "Do you require assistance?" he asked. "I CAN carry you both if necessary."

"No," Mom said, "that's alright…eh…"

"Prowl," I whispered.

"Prowl."

"We are nearly to our destination, anyhow," Prowl said looking back. "If you will continue with me, we will be at the Autobot base shortly."

I had to stare up at him. "Wait, but weren't we at the base earlier?"

"Negative," Prowl replied. "That clearing only served as a meeting place for you, as we couldn't show you our base just yet. However, now we have no choice."

He continued walking toward a large cliff side. It was so dark and Prowl's headlights didn't illuminate the whole thing. As he got closer I noticed a cave opening and, for a moment, I wondered if I was imagining it. But it seemed small.

"Eh, Prowl?" I asked. "That hole seems kinda small for you guys."

"Precisely how it is supposed to look," Prowl replied.

I watched as he stopped in front of the cave. A small blue beam came from his forehead and it landed on the rock as harmlessly as a laser pointer. After a few seconds it turned off and I briefly wondered what was going to happen.

But then I saw the large section of rock around the cave flickered blue and disappear. Prowl's headlights showed into a large opening that was more than large enough for a 'bot Optimus' size to walk through with ease.

"If you'll continue to follow me," Prowl said and he walked in. Mom and I hurried after him and down a long stone hallway.

Towards the end of the cave-like hallway it had turned to metal sides and low-powered tube-like lights that lined the walls three-quarters of the way up. As we went by them they brightened…most likely because of motion sensors.

"Wow," I heard my mom breathe, still clinging to my arm. "This is impressive."

Prowl made a mechanical humming sound that I was sure almost sounded like a chuckle. "As you humans say," he said calmly, "you have not seen anything yet."

We soon came upon the end of the hallway. Once we stepped into the next room both my mom and I were in utter awe.

We were in a room that must've had the surface area of at least five football fields, and the ceiling looked just as tall as one set sideways.

At the far corner from us was a large computer screen showing some schematics with a large-scaled keyboard jetting out of the wall below it. Sitting on a large stool in front of it was Jetfire watching the schematics and beside him was Ratchet, also looking at the screen.

In another corner from the computer was another large screen. But it seemed to be more of a TV set because there was a big metal sofa in front of it and a metal coffee table as well. There sat the twins watching some sort of car racing show, which they seemed to really be getting into.

On each wall were huge doorways that led to what looked like more hallways, because that was all I could see.

In the center of all this was a large silver-colored metal circle in the middle of the floor. On it shown the robotic head symbol of the Autobots in red metal plating.

"In…incredible," my mom whispered with what breath she had left. I could only nod in agreement.

I noticed Ratchet glancing at us and he turned and began walking toward us, his face almost expressionless. "Relieved to see you back," he told us though I got a feeling he was directing it more to me. He probably wanted to make sure I got my cuts and bruises taken care of soon. "I've just notified Optimus and he'll be here shortly. He was doing work in another room."

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed both of the twins perk up and look in our direction. When they saw me they both bolted from the couch and began running toward us at top speed.

"You might wanna let go, Mom," I whispered shaking my arm from her grasp.

Once she let go I felt myself being lifted by a black and red Autobot hand.

"Ellie, you're back!" Sideswipe said excitedly, holding me with both hands around my body.

"Hey, hey, don't hog her!" Sunstreaker pouted to his brother.

"Glad to know I was missed," I laughed. "Can you put me down? I wanna introduce you guys to my mom."

For the first time they both seemed to notice I wasn't the only human there right then. They both knelt down to get a closer look at my mom, but Sideswipe never put me down. Meanwhile, Mom was staring at Sideswipe with her mouth hung open slightly. Understandable, considering the last time she saw me being held by a robot it was trying to take me away.

"You're Ellie's mom?" the yellow twin asked, not taking note of her expression. Mom closed her mouth and slowly nodded.

"Mom," I said as I noticed Optimus walk in being closely followed by Jazz, Jetfire getting up to do the same, "these are the twins, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker." I gestured to each one as I said their names. "This is the doc bot, Ratchet. And over there," I pointed toward the three approaching Autobots, "are Jazz, Jetfire, and Optimus Prime."

"Pleasure," Optimus said stopping by us.

"Guys," I continued, "this is my mom, Janet."

"Beaut to meet ya," Jetfire said with a smile.

"Mom," I said quietly and more seriously, "these are the friends I've been hanging out with the past couple days. I'm sorry I lied to you and stuff, but you have to understand…I couldn't tell anyone about them." I sighed. "Not even you." I bent my head slightly, ready to take heat.

To my surprise, I saw her smile warmly at me. "Honey, I trust you a lot," she told me. "I completely understand why you had to keep this secret from me. Sweetie…" she stepped toward Sideswipe, who was still holding me and took my hand, "…I'm really proud of you."

I really couldn't help but smile. "Thanks, Mom."

**Jetfire Aussie dictionary:**  
Beaut - great, fantastic


	7. What did he say?

Chapter 7

"Ow! Hey, watch it!"

"Blast it, Ellie, quit squirming!" Ratchet snapped at me. He instantly turned back to his work, using some tweezers that grew out of his right index finger to dab at my knee with one of the alcohol pads I had picked up from home. He had out the magnifying glass attachment and was using it to help do the finer work that he wasn't used to. "I wish you could have done this earlier," he growled.

"Well, I'm sorry I didn't have time to take care of myself," I told him sarcastically.

A short while ago, Optimus told me that he needed to talk to my mom alone to explain the situation and he said I was welcome to roam around the base freely if I didn't want to rest right then. Before I could, however, Ratchet snatched me up and told me that I was getting bandaged up before I did anything else. He took me to some sort of sick bay and told me I could help in patching myself up if I wanted to. I started putting band-aids on my arms and he decided to do my knee. I had finished dressing my arms long before Ratchet had even figured out what to do with the alcohol pads.

I was sitting on a large-scaled version of a patient's bed, kind of like one in a hospital. The only main difference was that it was made of chrome metal and at the head and foot were bulging bubble-like panels that glowed a slight orange-yellow color. Everything else in the room also resembled a hospital room; there was a huge maneuverable light over my head and there were giant devices for measuring vital signs to the opposite side of the bed from where Ratchet stood hunched over working.

I was surprised at Ratchet's determination to make sure I was taken care of – and at how grumpy it made him. When I first met him he didn't seem like the kind of guy who would get grumpy about anything. I didn't blame him for being worried about me, but how he expressed it was beginning to irritate me.

"Geez, Doc Bot, you're just as bad as Ironhide."

Ratchet ignored me and continued working the tweezer-like tool, now reaching for a tube of ointment. It stung when he squeezed it on and rubbed it, but I tried my best to keep still. He then took a gauze pad and carefully laid it over the scrape. As he was wrapping it I couldn't help but be amazed at how fast he learned how to treat organic injuries; and at how well he did it.

"There," the medical 'bot huffed, standing up straight and the magnifying glass retracting, "all done."

I smiled up at him. "Thanks Ratchet."

He smiled back at me. "Well, you're free to go." He was clearly over his grumpiness. "Go run off, you diseased organic child." I looked at him, raising an eyebrow. He chuckled. "It was a joke."

"Yeah…don't do that," I said with a straight face. "You're too lame for that." Ratchet's smile disappeared and he raised an optic ridge at me. I laughed. "It was a joke. You're not lame at all, Doc Bot."

Ratchet smiled again and shook his head. He waved his hand, indicating that I could go. I grabbed my green jacket and my old ripped jeans that sat beside me and let the medical officer help me off of the giant patient bed.

I tapped down on the floor and pulled on my jacket. Holding my jeans, I trotted out of the medical bay.

Now I wanted to get back to what I thought about doing as soon as Optimus said I could explore the base: finding Ironhide. I hadn't seen him or Arcee and Bumblebee at all since I had set foot in the base with my mother and Prowl, and I guess I wanted to show him that even after what happened I was alright.

I went down the hallway back to the main room. The twins were gone and Jetfire was back at the computer. He waved at me when he saw me walk in from a nearby doorway.

"Hi, spunk!"

"Hey, Jetfire," I replied smiling. "Do you know where Ironhide is?"

The red and white Autobot nodded. "Too right," he said. He pointed toward a hallway at the far end of the room. "Down that hall, second door on the right. Careful, though. I went by there an' it sounded like he 'n Arcee were havin' an earbashing blue. Bumblebee might be there, too."

I swallowed. "I'll…take my chances. Thanks, Jetfire."

Jetfire nodded and turned his attention back to the screen. Whatever he was working on, it was pretty important.

I went to the hallway Jetfire indicated to and began walking. I still wasn't entirely sure what a 'blue' was, but when he said 'earbashing' I figured it couldn't be good. But I was prepared to deal with whatever mood Ironhide was in.

I came to the door that Jetfire had told me about. It was huge like everything else in the base, and it looked like it would only slide open. But I didn't know how to open it. I began to think about what I could try.

As I stood there pondering I began to notice Autobot voices talking about something on the other side – annoyed-sounding voices. I decided that I didn't want to go in right then and just listened.

"Ironhide, you got the electronic notice from Optimus," said a female 'bot voice; Arcee, "Ellie and Prowl got her mother and they're here now…safe in the base."

"I know!" retorted another voice that I recognized as Ironhide. "I ain't deaf!"

"Then why are you still mad?" asked a younger 'bot's voice; Bumblebee.

"'Cause now she can't even go home if she wanted to!"

"Ironhide," Bumblebee said calmly, "maybe it's better this way. I mean, we can keep an optic on her a whole lot easier."

"But don't ya think it's strange?" Ironhide growled. "That Optimus won't tell us WHY? Why the Decepticons want her 'n all?"

So Prowl was telling the truth when he said the Decepticons were after us, I observed.

"I know," Arcee said quietly. "I asked him about it and he only told me that we were here protecting the humans. That's all he would say."

"Why do you care so much about her anyway, Ironhide?" Bumblebee asked. "It's not really like you at all. It was always like your hide was made of, well, iron."

"Is it any of yer business?" Ironhide replied loudly. "She's just a kid an'…an' I don't want ta see her hurt is all. I just wish she could go home an' live a normal human life."

"You can't do anything about that," Arcee told him. "You aren't her father."

"Shuddup, Arcee!" Ironhide shouted. "You weren't HIS mother!"

Immediately, I dropped my jeans and stepped away from the door, putting my back against the wall beside it. I covered my mouth with my hand and stared at the ground. _What did he say? _I began trying to reason that Ironhide meant to say 'her' in reference to me, but I couldn't deny that he defiantly used a masculine term. _But, he didn't really mean HIM, did he?_

Inside the room, it was quiet after Ironhide's loud statement. Nobody had said or done anything until…

"Arcee, wait!"

The door slid open in a low whoosh sound and I saw the black and pink Autobot hurry out of the room, not seeing my torn jeans that lie on the floor, and begin to head toward the main room. She never noticed me.

"Arcee, wait…please."

Bumblebee came out after her before the door closed. Arcee had stopped in the hallway with her head down and she was hugging herself, but she didn't turn around as the yellow 'bot approached. He stopped right by her shoulder and looked down toward her. I kept quiet, not wanting to be discovered eavesdropping.

"I know that Ironhide only wanted to help her," Arcee said quietly, "but did he really have to bring HIM into the conversation?" Her head seemed to droop even more.

"I know," Bumblebee told her, "and I'm sorry." Arcee leaned her head back on his chest and he responded by putting his arm around her shoulders. "I know how much you cared about him," he whispered, "and I know how much pain you felt when you found out he was gone."

"I miss him," Arcee breathed.

I watched as they both began to walk down the hall to wherever they were headed to. "I know you do," Bumblebee responded softly.

They disappeared into the main room, but I still didn't move. I was trying to get over what Ironhide had said. I may have been prepared to deal with his mood, but nothing could ever prepare me for him mentioning the very person that I loved and missed the most: my dad. I was just confused. The three Autobots talked about him as if they had met and knew him. But how had I not known anything about the robotic aliens if that was so?

_I…I've got to ask Ironhide_, I told myself mentally. I slowly stood up from the wall and walked to face the door, stopping to pick up my old jeans.

I realized there was still the problem of entering, so I decided to try and knock.

But when I moved toward the door it flew open and I almost fell backward in surprise. I straightened up and cautiously stepped forward, half-expecting it to slam shut again, though it didn't. It could have been motion activated and may have been locked for the conversation.

I took my chance and hurried into the room, the door sliding closed behind me once I was inside.

The room was pretty big, seeming like a scaled version of my own room for someone of average Autobot size. In the corner to my left was a tall metal desk with a bent over lamp sprouting from the wall. Ahead of me was a metal bed that didn't have any bedding whatsoever. On the head and foot part of the bed were the same round bubble-like panels that were on the patient bed in the medical bay. On the other side of the bed were two redwood tree-sized metal cylinders with a section of each grooved around and glowing a deep red.

Sitting at the foot of the bed was Ironhide, his arms folded over his lap and his head hung down. He clearly didn't notice my entry.

I opened my mouth to say his name, but nothing came out. I cleared my throat and tried again. "Ironhide?"

The 'bot's head shot up and looked around above me to see who was there. After a moment of realization he started searching the floor and found me still standing by the door.

"How'd ya get in here?" he asked harshly.

I shrunk back a bit, holding my jeans tighter. "Well, I guess the door was open."

"D*** it," the black and silver 'bot grumbled, turning his head to stare at the wall ahead of him.

I gulped. "So, uh, I saw Arcee and, uh, Bumblebee come out before I came in," I told him. "What were you guys talking about?"

His optics briefly turned to me before staring back at the wall. "None of yer business."

I sighed. "Fair enough," I said, walking toward his bed.

I reached him and set my jeans against the bed base on the floor. I then walked over began crawling up onto his foot.

The Autobot looked down at me with puzzlement. "What're ya doin'?" When he asked that I detected a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Trying to get up," I grunted, hopping upward to grab the top of his shin plate. I pulled myself up and grabbed a ladder rung-like feature on his leg. "Geez, I thought fat guys were supposed to be jolly," I said in response to his tone of voice.

Ironhide growled. "An' I thought little girls were s'posed ta be nice."

He reached down with his right hand and grabbed me gently. He brought me up and deposited me on his lap by his knee. I sat down and hung my legs over the side as he sat up straight and looked at me. For a few moments we just looked at each other.

I looked downward and sighed. I had the chance. I had the chance so I decided that now was the best time to ask him about what I wanted to know.

"Ironhide," I said turning my head to see him, "can I ask you a question?"

Ironhide raised an optic ridge. "'Bout what?"

I swallowed. "Well…"

"Hold on." Ironhide quickly brought his hand up to the side of his head and tapped it. "Ironhide here. What is it, Prime?" I frowned as he listened to Optimus in the comlink. "Don't worry, I've got her." He listened for a moment, but I could swear that I saw his optics widen. "Wait, what?" He leaned forward and I was worried that he would accidently push me off. "Why?" he asked, putting his left hand to keep me from falling. After a second he let out a mechanical huff. "Fine." He removed his hand from his head, severing the connection.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Optimus told me that yer mother is restin'," the black Autobot replied, "an' that it's 'bout time that you did the same. But…"

I raised an eyebrow. "But?"

"It's too late ta go ta where yer mother is, so yer gonna hafta sleep here…in my quarters." He looked at the wall and I could hear a low grumbling sound coming from him. "Why couldn't ya talk ta Arcee or somebody? Somebody other than ME?"

I let out a huff of breath. "Well, excuse me for wanting you to know I was okay," I said standing up. I turned around. "I'll just hop down and stay outta your hair from now on."

"No, no, don't do that," Ironhide said quickly, dropping his hand by me. "Look, you can stay; Just don't bring me outta recharge early." He lifted me from his knee and moved to where he could lay down.

"Not a morning 'bot, huh?" I asked as he set me on his chest armor and put his hands behind his head.

"Not particularly," he grumbled. "Now get to recharge…or, whatever you humans call it."

"Sleep," I told him. "And how do I know you won't roll over and, I dunno, CRUSH me?"

"'Cause Cybertronians don't move a circuit durrin' recharge," Ironhide replied gruffly.

I sighed and laid down, cradled in Ironhide's metal chest. I stared up at the ceiling, which was rowed in dim tub lights like the ones in the hallways. I wondered if it was a good time to ask Ironhide my question, but I knew that if I happened to wake him up he wouldn't be too happy.

"Ellie…" Ironhide's voice made me jump.

"Yeah?" I replied.

I heard him take a breath, and then he said, "May I ask ya a question?"

I was a little confused that he would be asking me anything, but I brushed it aside. "Sure. Shoot."

"It's…a personal question," Ironhide told me quietly. "I don't NEED ya ta answer it if ya don't wanna."

"Ask, and we'll see."

Ironhide breathed again. "Alright," he said. "Lately I've been noticin' that ya only mentioned yer mother when ya talked about yer family. I…I want ta ask… where's yer father?"

I froze, even though I wasn't moving. I didn't know what to say, or even do. If I hadn't heard the earlier conversation, this would have seemed totally out of the blue.

"I apologize," Ironhide said suddenly. "Ya don't have ta answer. Just forget it."

"No, it's okay," I responded quickly, rolling over to lay on my stomach and look at his face. "I just didn't expect you ask about him…is all." I folded my arms underneath me and set my chin down, looking to the side.

I sighed, preparing myself emotionally to talk about my dad. "He's gone," I told Ironhide quietly. "He worked in the army and was away from home a lot. He couldn't ever tell us what he worked on, but it was important."

I crossed one of my legs behind the other as I remembered. I was glad that Ironhide was just waiting quietly, because it was already hard. "I was ten," I said. "I was sitting on the couch in my living room, drawing up…" I thought, trying to recall, "some sort of robot or something. Mom and I were just sitting there, drawing and reading with the news on TV. A story came on about some explosion on a military base island by the Philippines." I gulped and said the next words carefully. "DAD was working on that island."

I moved my head slightly as I could feel my eyes sting, but continued. "From what I heard, there were never any known survivors. It was a radiation explosion, I think…so they couldn't go to try and investigate how it happened." I breathed, but I realized that air was coming harder. "We still get money and stuff from the government for his work, but…" I swallowed, "it will never bring him back!"

Now I was crying. I curled my legs up, hiding my head in my arms, and bit my lip to try and keep from crying harder. _What's wrong with me?_ I demanded of myself. _Stop! Stop crying! _If I didn't stop, Ironhide would get mad and HATE me. I was sure of it.

I almost panicked when the Autobot moved beneath me. He put his hand over me to keep me from sliding off as he sat up. I turned my head up and he was looking down at me with a frown. I instantly looked down and started wiping my face in my sleeve.

"I-Ironhide, I'm sorry!" I said quickly. "I-I thought I was past the crying thing, but… I didn't mean to…"

"No, it's fine," Ironhide said quietly, interrupting me. He laughed softly in an obvious effort of trying to be comforting. "That's what humans do when they're sad, huh?"

I sniffed and nodded. "Yeah," I said, laying my head against his armor. I turned it upward to look at him. "What do Transformers do if they don't cry?"

Ironhide shifted his position. "Well," he said, cupping hand over the other that was still holding me, "we don't physically leak liquids, though we have the ability to make it look that way if we wanted to. No, uh, we do something different…physically."

"What?" I asked curiously.

"Our optics," the Autobot replied. "They change different shades dependin' on our emotions."

For a moment we just sat there, Ironhide sitting up and cradling me in his hands against his chest. I closed my eyes and began breathing deeply, calming myself.

"Ya need ta get to sleep," Ironhide said suddenly. "I'm sure yer father would want ya ta be rested."

I nodded. "Yeah, alright," I said quietly.

Ironhide shifted again and he lay back down on the bed and began to move his hands back behind his head. I reached out and grabbed the thumb of one as he was moving it away from me. The Autobot looked at me in confusion.

"Could you, uh, leave it here?" I asked nervously. "It's kinda cold in here and I doubt you guys have any blankets or anything."

Ironhide sighed and lay his head back down, moving his hand back where it was. "Fine," he murmured. "Ya need ta sleep, girl."

I nodded and set my head down again, taking a deep breath. "Thanks, Ironhide," I said softly, "for everything."  
The Autobot mumbled something and I could see the light from his optics dimming as he evidently went into recharge. Almost automatically the lights on the ceiling turned off, only leaving the panels on the bed and on the sections of the two metal cylinders glowing dimly. I sighed quietly and closed my eyes, preparing to sleep.

**Jetfire Speech help:**

Too right: Correct, Affirmative

Earbashing blue: Loud, heated argument


	8. Sweet Dreams are Made of These

Chapter 8

"_Alright, sweetie," a man said to his young two-year-old daughter who was cradled in his arms, "we're gonna go and see daddy's friends! You wanna meet daddy's friends?"_

_The girl looked up at her father with her blue eyes shining under reddish-brown curled bangs and squealed with excitement. "Daddy's fwends! Awmy fwends!"_

_The red-haired man laughed. "Yes, I suppose they are my army friends," he told her, smiling. "Come on, they're just in here." He indicated to a nearby grey military-style hangar._

_They went, an elderly man driving by in a jeep waving at them before he sped off to his destination. The girl's father reached the hangar and went through the massive door that was slightly cracked open. It was quiet as if nobody was there. Other than the man and his daughter only four assorted vehicles of different colors were parked quietly._

"_Hey, guys," the man called out, his voice echoing in the gigantic building, "I've brought you a little visitor." For a moment, nothing happened._

_Suddenly, the girl gasped in glee. All of the vehicles had started changing, each standing up straight and sprouting limbs and a head. The four large robotic humanoids looked at the man and his child with curiosity, while she continued to squeal in happiness; her own way of expressing curiosity._

_A blue and white robot with a number four on his chest and a visor was the first of them to speak. "Whoa, this is some freaky sh**!" he expressed, staring at the girl in awe._

"_Jazz, please watch you language around her," the man told him with a frown. "She's only a kid."_

"_I must congratulate you," an extremely large blue and red masked robot stated, kneeling down to look at the small family closer. "I'm certain that you and your partner are very pleased to have her." The girl laughed and began reaching out to touch the 'bot's face mask._

"_Thanks, Optimus," the man replied smiling. He looked at his daughter fondly. "She may have my hair and eyes, but she's got every ounce of her mother's beauty."_

_A red robot looked at the girl in an observing manner. "Short and chubby-looking, isn't she?" he asked, turning to the father. "Can she even walk with those short lower appendages?"_

_The man chuckled. "See for yourself, Perceptor," he said, kneeling down and setting the toddler up on her own feet._

_The robots all instantly became still, worried about harming her if they moved, as they watched her gain her balance and she began to waddle toward the 'bot Perceptor. She reached his massive hand that supported his body as he was kneeling and she fell forward onto it, catching herself._

_The toddler looked up at the red 'bot's face and smiled widely. "Percy!" she squealed excitedly._

"_No, sweetie, his name's Perceptor," the human man told his daughter with a slight smile._

"_I-it's quite alright," Perceptor said quickly. "I'm sure that she's just learning how to use her vocal systems and my name may be too complex for her at the present."_

_The child smiled and said his name again. "Percy! Percy! Percy!"_

"_Wow, Perceptor," a red and orange 'bot said, approaching from the opposite end of the hangar with a smile on his faceplate, "I'm impressed that a nerd like you could appeal to a young organic."_

_Perceptor looked at the ground nervously. "T-thank you, Hot Rod… I suppose…"_

_The robot known as Hot Rod chuckled and he went past the others toward the girl, who was now looking at him. Once he got close he sat down cross-legged on the floor and leaned forward to look at her._

"_Dang, man, you and your wife make one good-lookin' kid!" he told the man with a smile._

_The man laughed. "Thanks."_

_Hot Rod reached his hand out toward the girl and dropped his voice to a cooing tone. "C'mere, kiddo," he said gently. "Come see Uncle Hot Rod."_

"_Uncle Hot Stuff!" the girl said excitedly, obviously misinterpreting the robot's name._

_Hot Rod laughed. "Close enough," he said._

_The child began her waddle toward his out-stretched hand. She reached it and started to climb onto it, grabbing the grooves at the joints in his fingers to pull herself up._

_Once she sat in his palm he slowly brought her to where he could see her better. He smiled. "Hello, little one."_

"Hey, Ellie, where's your mom?

I nearly fell off of the tall metal couch when I heard Sideswipe's voice being right behind me. "She went with Bumblebee to grab some food," I said turning to the 'bot, who was leaning over the back of the couch with his head resting on his folded arms. "They should be back soon."

I had been thinking about the dream I had the night before. It wasn't necessarily a bad dream – it was just weird, and a little creepy. It had been a while since I had dreamed about my dad, and I certainly wasn't expecting a dream with the Autobots in it. What puzzled me though were the different robotic designs of Optimus and Jazz, and then the two extra Autobots; Perceptor and Hot Rod. I never saw them with the Autobots, so I was wondering where they came from.

"Hm. So while you're waiting," Sideswipe said, interrupting my thoughts, "you decided to watch racing on TV with my ever-so-selfish brother?"

"Hey!" Sunstreaker exclaimed from beside me, turning to look at him, "I'm not selfish!"

"You care about your paint job more than you care about Ellie," the red twin said calmly. "You used turtle wax TWICE this morning."

"Hey, I can't help it if I've been granted by Primus with sexiness instead of you," Sunstreaker responded with a smirk.

I moaned. "Guys, please," I interrupted, "it's too early. Seriously, just let me watch TV."

"Yeah, SIDES," Sunstreaker stated to his brother. "You're bothering us and keeping us from watching the race."

Sideswipe raised an optic ridged. "No," he said, "I'm keeping YOU from watching the race. For Ellie, I'm worrying about her." I looked up at the red Autobot in puzzlement as he focused on me with a serious face. "Is something bothering you?" he asked. "You don't look okay."

"She's fine!" Sunstreaker said before I could reply. "Now shut up or go away!"

"Wasn't talking to you, ugly," Sideswipe told him. Sunstreaker instantly stood up and I did too, inching backwards to the other end of the couch. "'Ugly'?" he demanded angrily. "We're TWINS!"

"Yeah," Sideswipe replied standing up straight, "and I'm evidently the smarter half."

I watched as Sunstreaker tromped around behind the couch and looked at his brother with rage. "You wanna say that again?" he growled.

Before Sideswipe could answer, there was a loud crash of metal as an Autobot had come and slammed both the twins' heads together. The silver 'bot then slammed them both harshly away from the couch and onto the floor.

"You two!" Jazz shouted at them as they looked up at him. "You get yo afts away from Ellie if you gonna fight!"

"Y-yes sir, Jazz!" the two 'bots said at the same time.

Instantly, they both turned into their vehicle forms and swerved around, speeding away to the hallway across the room and disappeared, Sunstreaker mumbling loudly about dents in his helmet.

I continued to stare at Jazz as he patted his hands together, making the metal clink. "D*** kids," he mumbled. He turned his head to look at me and I could see he was smiling. "Sorry ya had ta see that, kid." He looked at the TV. "Mind if I join ya?"

Still staring at him, I nodded. Jazz returned the gesture and walked to the side of the couch. He suddenly leapt up into the air and before I could react he landed in the seat, bouncing me about a foot up. He leaned back setting his feet on the table in front of him and I landed on my butt, groaning quietly.

Not noticing me, Jazz folded his arms and stared at the giant television with interest. I sighed and put my back against the metal couch and looked at the TV as well, though I wasn't paying attention to it. When I thought more about the dream, the more I found similarities between it and the argument from the night before; the possibility of them knowing my Dad from the past, and the dream taking place when I was just a little kid.

"Whoa… that's freaky."

I looked up at Jazz, who was still looking at the TV. "What's freaky?" I asked.

"Well," Jazz began, turning to me, "y'see, Cybertronians can change what they want for their vehicle forms if they wanna just by scanning them." He looked at the TV again. "I just saw somethin' that looked like my old form I used ta have."

I could feel my eyes widen in curiosity. "What?" I asked turning to the TV as well. "Which car? Which one is it?"

Jazz leaned closer to me and pointed. "Ya see that one behind the red 'n green one?"

I looked at the car he was indicating to. My heart almost stopped. "Y…you mean the blue and white one?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yep!" Jazz declared proudly. "I used ta transform inta somethin' just like that, 'cept it had the human numeral four on the hood. Man, I kinda miss that ride." He sat back and let out a chuckle. "But, d***, I still look hot!"

I just sat transfixed on the blue and white car as it closed in on the lead car. It was just too weird to be a coincidence. The Jazz in my dream easily looked like he could transform into that car.

"Yo!" Jazz suddenly said loudly, startling me, "just where do ya think yo goin', glitch?" I stood up on the armrest to see who he was talking to and saw the red and black 'bot Sideswipe almost to the base entrance.

"I'm just goin' to get some air!" the twin protested. "Primus, who went offline and made you Prime?" He turned back toward the door and instantly stopped. "Oh, you're back."

I perked up as I saw Bumblebee walk with my mom sitting in one hand and a grocery bag pinched between two fingers in the other. He immediately spotted me peeking over the couch and began making his way across the room.

"Wazzup, Bumblebot," Jazz greeted cheerfully, waving.

"Hey, Jazz," Bumblebee returned.

"Hello, Jazz," said my mom. She looked at me with a smile. "Hi, sweetie." Bumblebee set her down on the table and handed her the bag.

"Hi, Mom," I said, allowing Jazz to help me across to where Mom stood. What did you get us?"

"Just some chicken and stuff," Mom replied. She reached in the bag and handed me a small box of chicken strips. "Bumblebee tried to pull into an Italian restaurant drive-through, but I had to tell him I was on a tight budget."

I laughed. "Thanks, Bee," I said looking at the yellow 'bot.

Bumblebee shrugged. "Can't blame a 'bot for trying."

I opened the box and began eating my chicken strips that mom had gotten for me. I finished pretty quickly, even though I wasn't very hungry. I was still thinking about the dream. I really wanted to tell someone about it, but for some reason I was afraid to talk to Jazz, even to Optimus. Mom just wouldn't get it, so I had no idea what to do.

"Hey, Mom, is it okay if I leave the base to go for a walk?" I asked turning toward her.

Mom stopped eating as she was about to take a bite out of a drumstick and looked at me. She looked over at Jazz, who just shrugged. "That's fine, sweetie," she said focusing back on me. "I could tell you to take one of the Autobots with you, but Sideswipe's already out there. If you find him you'll be fine. But if you don't, I want you to come back, got it?"

I smiled at her. "Glad that meeting the Autobots hasn't messed up your obsession with my safety," I told her sarcastically. "I should be back soon, kay?"

Mom just nodded and continued eating the chicken leg. I let Jazz help me to the floor from the metal table.

"Thanks, Jazz," I said gratefully and I trotted toward the base exit.

***

"Ow!"

I blinked at the nearly-blinding sunlight that hit my face as soon as I stepped out of the cave-like structure to the Autobot base. I had been stuck in the base for too long.

Still shielding my eyes, I began walking. I didn't care where I was going, I just needed to think. It was clear that my troubles weren't just about having discovered a new alien race and keeping the secret anymore. It was now about trying to figure out how I was going to live with Optimus apparently keeping secrets from me, and maybe even some of the Autobots. Whatever he thought the Decepticons were after, he wanted to make sure that I didn't know my mom and I were somehow involved. It just bothered me, but I didn't know what to do.

I suddenly heard something; an engine of a car and wheels digging in the dirt. I was out of sight from the Autobot base; no time to run back inside. I ran and hid at the in the thick shrubs at the bottom of a forked aspen tree. I sat there, praying I wouldn't be spotted.

_D*** it, I thought the Decepticons had no idea where we were! I_ cautiously peeked from the shrubbery to watch the approaching vehicle. _Oh, wait…that's no Decepticon. It's only Sideswipe._

The red Lamborghini slowed to a stop as I stepped out into the open. In an instant he transformed and was staring down at me in curiosity and puzzlement.

"Um, Ellie," he said, "is there some kind of human game where you go about hiding in a bush?"

"Actually there is," I replied, fixing and pulling twigs out of my hair. "It's called hide-and-seek, but that's not what I was doing. I just thought you were a Decepticon."

Sideswipe narrowed his eyes at me. "Thanks a lot," he grumbled, sitting down cross-legged and resting his chin on his hand. "So, what're you doin' out here if it seems you're going to be paranoid about scrap?"

I sighed and sat down too. "I just got stuff on my mind," I told him. "I thought getting outta the base would help clear my head a bit."

"Hm. So I was right."

I looked up at the Autobot. "About what?"

"Remember?" Sideswipe asked. "At the base I asked if something was bothering you."

I looked away into the forest. "Oh yeah," I said quietly. "Right before Jazz beat the crap outta you and Sunny." I sighed. "Yeah, I was thinking about…something."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"Not really," I replied shaking my head. I sighed, but then a thought came to me. "Sideswipe," I said, turning up to see him, "do you trust Optimus?"

The 'bot looked at me as if I was crazy. "Of course I do!" he stated strongly. "I trust Prime with my very spark."

"Even if he was keeping something from you?" I blurted out a little loudly.

Sideswipe blinked, but then he shook his head. "I'm sure that if Prime had ANYTHING to keep from us it would be for a good reason," he replied leaning closer to me. "Listen, Ellie, to him the most important things are the lives of innocents and the lives of his team. If keeping secrets keeps us safe, that's what he'll do. But it's not like he likes it."

"Well, I don't think I would like it either if he kept something important from me," I said, a bit annoyed.

The Autobot let out a huff. "And you think we do?" he asked. "Of course whenever we find out stuff's been kept from us we get a little mad. But then we realize it's usually for the better."

I grumbled. But then I realized Sideswipe had a point. I sighed and looked back at him. "I guess you're right," I admitted quietly.

The red and black 'bot smiled. "Don't worry," he said, ever so gently patting my head. "Optimus will keep you and your mom safe. Besides…I think I've got something to cheer up." I watched as his chest suddenly slid open like a drawer with a pivot point at the bottom. He reached in, grabbing something in his fist, and his chest closed back up.

"What is it?" I asked curiously.

Sideswipe smirked and opened his fist, palm up. I gasped at what he was holding.

"That's my…"

"Your notebook," Sideswipe finished proudly.

I stood up and gazed at it in surprise. "How did you find it?" I asked, looking at him expectantly.

"As you humans would say," he began, "it was pure luck. I was driving around, blowing off some steam, when I saw this thing lying on the ground. I went to check it out, and lo and behold, it was yours."

I couldn't stop smiling. "Oh my g**, Sideswipe, you're the best!" I exclaimed, grabbing his thumb and hugging it. "I love you so much!"

Sideswipe laughed. "Love you too, kid. I have to say, I hate it when you're depressed." He nudged me with his hand so I took my notebook. "Now, if you'll excuse me," the 'bot said, standing up, "I'm gonna go help Jetfire with setting up you and your mom's room."

"Wait, what?" I asked, looking up at him.

"What, you think you'd have to keep bunking with 'Hide?" Sideswipe asked with a smile. "No, Optimus said you humans needed your own room with your own needs and everything." I watched as he walked past me toward the direction of the base. "I'll see you around," he called over his shoulder.

I watched until he disappeared from sight. I was still shocked about him bringing back my notebook; bringing back something from my normal life. I began to continue my aimless walk. Sideswipe was right, it DID cheer me up. And he said that we would be getting out own room so I didn't have to stay with Ironhide.

I immediately stopped. Ironhide…I hadn't seen him at all through the morning. I even woke up on his recharge booth without him being there. It was almost like he was avoiding something. I knew I had to find him.

I sighed and kept walking. 'But it's not like I know where he is,' I told myself. 'Besides, even if I did find him, how would I ask if something was bothering him?'

As I was thinking, I noticed something. I was right by a path of vegetation that looked like it had been stomped on by elephants recently. Shrugging my shoulders I decided to follow it away from the base.

Finally, after a bit of walking, I saw something through the trees' something black and silver. It was Ironhide.

My insides fluttering, I ran through the path he had made to try and reach him. When I did, I saw that he was sitting in the grass by a small lake, occasional ripples appearing from fish briefly breeching the surface. I focused on Ironhide and noticed he looked like he was thinking about something.

"Ironhide?" I asked.

The 'bot immediately turned his head, surprised that someone had found him. "Blast it, girl, don't do that!" he shouted. "Ya keep doin' that an' you'll give me a spark short-out!"

"Sorry," I said shrugging. He just grumbled and looked back out to the lake. "Ironhide," I asked quietly, "are you alright?"

He grunted. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you kinda disappeared his morning," I told him. "I don't know if you're avoiding everybody because something's bothering you or what, but," I sighed, "I guess I'm worried about you."

For a moment, Ironhide didn't seem to care that I actually said something. But then, he sighed. "I'm okay," he stated quietly. He looked at me. "But I dunno if YOU are. Yer involved in somethin' that's been goin' on fer millions o' Earth Stellar cycles."

I had to think. "Stellar cycles…that's like years, isn't it?" Ironhide nodded. "Whoa…MILLIONS?"

Ironhide nodded again. "Yeah," he said. "Been here since the beginnin'. An' I hafta say, it ain't a pretty thing ta be livin' a war." The 'bot suddenly groaned and leaned back, supporting his weight on is arms. "But 'nuff 'bout me," he stated, his voice back to normal. "How's Ellie doin'?"

I sat down in the grass, setting my notebook to the side. "What do you mean?"

"Waddaya mean wadda I mean?" he asked loudly, shooting a glare at me. "Ya practically poured yer spark out at me last night with all the cryin' an' stuff!"

I stared at him. "My WHAT?"

The Autobot blinked. He thought. "That, uh, beating lump o' muscle in yer chest. Slag, what'd Ratchet call it?"

"My…heart?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, that thing. Now are ya gonna answer my question or not?"

I had to think. Did I really want to let Ironhide know what was on my mind? Sure I told him about my Dad, but did I want to tell him of my suspicions?

I sighed. "Well, I guess I'm okay," I began, "but I had this really weird dream last night."

"Dream?" Ironhide asked. "I think I know those… like motion pictures in yer head when yer unconscious, right?" I nodded. "Right. So, what was it about?"

I took a breath and began telling him about the dream; where my dad was taking a toddler version of me to visit some Autobots at some sort of military base. I also made sure to mention the two extra 'bots, Perceptor and Hot Rod.

"And you know the Hot Rod one?" I asked finishing up. "I recognized him as the robot I was drawing when I found out Dad died." I looked up at him and I noticed he was staring at me. "What?"

"N…nothin'," the 'bot mumbled, shaking his head. "Just like ya said…weird dream." He suddenly stopped, almost as if listening to something.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Optimus."

"Can I hear it too, please?"

Ironhide nodded. "'Course." He double-tapped the side of his helmet and I heard a click.

"Optimus Prime to Autobots," Optimus' voice came from Ironhide. "Return immediately to base for discussion and it is necessary for Ellie to attend as well. Any 'bot who is with her, please bring her along." There was another click and I assumed that it was the end.

"Discussion?" I wondered looking up at the black and silver 'bot.

He shrugged. "Yer guess' as good as mine." He reached his hand out and allowed me to climb on before he stood up and turned back for the base.


	9. The Meeting

Chapter 9

Ironhide, with me sitting on his left shoulder, arrived at the base where everyone was already in the main room and waiting. I almost didn't notice Arcee who was in the back corner of the room beside the TV, not particularly looking at anyone and her optics dimly lit.

"Welcome, old friend," Optimus greeted Ironhide from beside the computer where Jetfire was once again sitting; his chair swiveled to face the group. "And welcome, Ellie." The Autobot leader nodded to me.

"Now that everybot's here," Bumblebee began, leaning against the couch between the twins with Mom sitting on his shoulder, "mind explaining what this discussion's about?"

"Easy, Bumblebee," Optimus told him. The red and blue truck turned to Jazz, who stood beside him, and inclined his head slightly.

The silver 'bot returned the gesture and stepped forward, his hands behind his back. "Now, all y'all 'bots listen up!" he stated loudly to the whole room of Autobots. Once he had their attention, he began to pace in front of us. "Both Teletraan-One 'n Prowl picked up an Amber Alert, a notice of a child's kidnappin', tha's been out for Ellie since last night. This mornin' they got another alert for Janet's disappearance." He stopped and turned to face everyone. "As Optimus 'n I understand, tha' means they'll be lookin' at cameras of local stores, Automated Teller Machines, an' even stoplight surveillance. Also," he said, grabbing everyone's attention once again, "the human law enforcement have an investigatin' agency known as the Federal Bureau of Investigations now lookin' inta the 'disappearances'."

Sunstreaker's arm immediately shot up in the air. "Question: What, Primus tell, is the Federal whatever of Investigations?"

I was surprised when my mom was the one who answered. "The FBI is basically a national detective agency that deals with international issues such as terrorism, human trafficking, large crime organizations, and more. Sometimes they are brought in to investigate disappearances and kidnappings." As she said that she quickly shot a glance at Prowl. The police 'bot only responded by briefly shutting off his optics and shrugging.

"In any case," Optimus spoke up, drawing attention to him, "the human society is still unaware of our presence. They will be searching for Ellie and Janet, and if they do happen to be found I'm afraid questions will be asked."

I could feel my eyes widen. I leaned forward, being careful not to fall off of Ironhide's shoulder. "So, wait," I began, causing the Autobot leader to look at me, "you're saying I can't even tell my BEST FRIENDS that I'm alright? Emma and Marcie are just gonna have to go on thinking that I'm in trouble or WORSE?"

"I'm afraid so."

I frowned. I sat straight and swung one leg over the other, folding my arms. "Great," I stated with a hint of annoyance. "Sure, just LET them think I'm dead." I sighed and waved my hand as if brushing something away. "Whatever, you're the bossbot."

_Just more people for you to keep secrets from, no biggie,_ my mind muttered sarcastically to itself.

It annoyed me to not be able to show them I was okay. Marcie's family and my family had been friends ever since our grandparents had met so long ago. We had practically grown up together like sisters. Emma we had met the year before when she moved in, but she instantly fit into our little twosome of oddballs; me the artist who doodled random stuff, Marcie the walking encyclopedia, and then Emma the miniature grease monkey taking after her dad.

Optimus raised an optic at me, catching my attention. "If any more humans get involved the Decepticons will use them to their advantage, taking them as hostages or for some other gain."

I looked at him raising both eyebrows. I couldn't help but think that the red and blue mech knew EXACTLY what would happen with humans involved.

I shook my head and focused on him again. "So if we can't go back to school and work what are we supposed to do when you guys go out on missions or whatever?" I asked.

"Naturally, you will not be left alone," Prowl told me, answering for his leader. "For security reasons I suggested that we assign a Guardian for you and your mother to be watched over by at all times."

"Which was another reason for this discussion," Optimus continued. "If the appointment of Guardian interests you-"

"I'll do it." Everyone, including me, turned their heads to look at the black and silver weapons specialist in some form of surprise. "I'll be their Guardian," Ironhide said, a serious look on his faceplate.

For a moment Optimus eyed him and no one said anything. But then the red and blue 'bot raised both optic ridges and turned his head. "No argument there, Ironhide," he told the black and silver Autobot. "It is your choice after all, and I'm certain that you'll do an excellent job."

"Thank you," Ironhide said nodding slightly.

I continued to stare at him. I just didn't know what to say. I was struck completely speechless and my head just went blank – but at the same time it seemed to buzz with questions: why did he volunteer for this? I thought he just got annoyed when I was around him…and he totally seemed like he would prefer to go out and fight rather than to babysit humans.

"So I suppose it is settled," Optimus said suddenly, interrupting my train of thought even though it didn't seem to even have a track, "Ironhide will keep watch of the humans while we continue against the Decepticons. Ironhide, you will still be expected to take your patrol shift."

"Understood, Prime," Ironhide replied.

"That is all," the red and blue Autobot stated, turning back to everyone. "Dismissed."

Immediately all the Autobots dispersed, mumbling among themselves. Some even went down different hallways to go back to whatever they were doing before Optimus called them in. I only caught a glimpse of Arcee disappearing into the hall that went to the medical bay. Her room could have been down there, I supposed.

"Wait, so that's it?" I asked turning to Ironhide. "That's all he needed to tell us about?"

Ironhide shrugged, bouncing me slightly. "Normally, he would've told us through comlink," he replied, "but since you an' yer mother don't have Cybertronian communicators of any sort he had ta gather us all together."

"Speaking of which…" Ironhide and I both turned to look at Jetfire who was just getting up from the computer and began to walk toward us. "I've been workin' on a converter chip for your cellular telephone device." He stopped in front of us, towering over Ironhide, and held up his hand. Grown from his index finger was a set of tweezers with a small mechanical chip clutched in it. "I ain't exactly a mechanic, but with some of Ambo Bot's help I was able to rig this up." He smiled at me. "Wanna give it a whirl?"

Ironhide looked up at him and folded his arms, raising an optic ridge. "What exactly does it do, 'Fire?"

"Well," Jetfire began, shifting slightly, "it's S'POSED ta convert tha' cellular device so tha' it can rock up Cybertronian frequencies AND prevent tracking from any humans looking for its signal. Least, that's what I hope, mate."

Ironhide seemed to glare at him, but I just shrugged. "Why not?" I asked. I leaned to the side and pulled out my cell phone. "I wouldn't be able to use it otherwise or the police would find us."

I held it out and Jetfire brought his other hand up, allowing me to place it on his metal palm. He nodded at me. "Thanks, spunk," he said with a smile. "I'll get this back ta ya as soon as Ambo and I are done with it. If it works, we'll be convertin' Janet's telephone next."

"Uh, that won't happen," I told him. "Mom's always worked at home so she never got a cell phone."

The jet nodded, understanding. "Oh, that makes sense. Well, I'll get this back soon." The Autobot was about to turn and leave but he stopped, staring at me. "What's that?" he asked.

I was confused. "What's what?"

Jetfire gently poked his right pinkie into my right arm. "That," he replied, his accent barely noticeable.

I looked. Tucked under my arm was my notebook that Sideswipe had given me earlier. "You mean this?" I asked, holding it out in front of me with both arms to show him.

The jet nodded. "Yeah. Did ya have that when I found ya?"

"Uh-uh," I replied. "Screamer found it before he kidnapped me." I shrugged. "I guess when he dropped me he felt he didn't need the book anymore."

Jetfire blinked. His optics then rose to look at my face. "May I?"

"Go on and take it with you," I told him tossing it onto his hand next to my cell phone. "You can go ahead and look through it if you want."

The red and white 'bot smiled. "I'll be sure an' do that, spunk." He then turned to the weapons specialist. "Take care of her 'Hide."

Ironhide grunted and rolled his optics. "Just get goin', jet."

Jetfire chuckled softly before turning and heading toward the medical bay. I noticed that as he walked he kept looking into his left hand.

"Hey Ironhide," I said turning to look at his faceplate, "are you gonna keep me on your shoulder like a parrot or can I go and watch TV with Sunny and Bee?"

For a moment the black and silver 'bot looked at me. "Why are ya askin' me? I ain't stoppin' ya from doin' anythin'."

"Actually, you kinda are," I corrected him. I leaned forward slightly to look at the ground. "If I jump down from up here I'll, at best, break both my legs or, at worst, die as a pancake." I looked back at him, raising one corner of my mouth into a half smile. "Both of which I'd prefer not happen."

The 'bot just stared at me with his mouth slightly slit open. He suddenly turned his head away from me. "M-mah bad, I suppose." With his right hand he gently reached over to his left shoulder and softly wrapped his fingers around my torso. He plucked me from his armor and then knelt down, setting me onto the metal floor. I smiled at the towering black mech before finally trotting off toward the television. I was surprised when I looked back and saw that he was following after me.

"Ah, I can do better than that slagger."

"What're you talkin' about, you rusted geezer?" Sunstreaker asked the black and silver 'bot bitterly. "You can barely keep up with the rest of us whenever we roll out!"

"You forget, ya little glitch," Ironhide said, leaning over Bumblebee's head to see the yellow twin, "I finished the same time as ya'll did durrin' that charity race!"

"That's only 'cause the ref couldn't see a slaggin' thing!" Sunstreaker retorted, his optics dimming angrily. "You KNOW I beat you!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Both bots looked down at the smaller yellow and black mech, surprised he had spoken. "Enough with the language and just shut up!" he told them in an annoyed tone, his optics glowing brightly. "Some of us are actually WATCHING the race and aren't thinking about how we would perform!" He then leaned forward, folding his arms over his lap. "…much…" He muttered it so quietly I almost didn't hear it.

I smiled and tried not to choke from my effort of keeping from laughing out loud.

"What's so funny?" Mom whispered from beside me.

"Oh, just Bee," I told her. "But that reminds me…" I spun around to look at the yellow and black Autobot. "Bumblebee, where's Arcee? She disappeared right after Optimus' discussion."

Bumblebee blinked at me. But then he powered off his optics and sighed. "She's shut up in her quarters," he replied, shaking his head. "She won't really let anyone in. I just don't understand what's going on, but I wish I could."

"So why don't you go and talk to her?" I asked him. "I'll bet she'll need someone to be with her if something's bothering her."

The Autobot stared at me for a moment, apparently processing what I had just said. I hoped that I didn't make it sound like I KNEW Arcee was upset.

"Know what," Bumblebee said, grabbing my attention, "I think I WILL go talk to her. You're probably right about her needing somebot to talk to." He started to get up and Ironhide and Sunstreaker shifted aside to allow him to leave. "See you guys later," he said and he trotted off to the hallway that Arcee had gone down earlier and disappeared.

Before I turned back to the TV I saw Jetfire walk in through that same doorway followed by Sideswipe. The red twin pointed toward the TV and Jetfire nodded. They both began to approach, a smile on both their faceplates.

"Hiya, spunk!" Jetfire greeted happily. "Hello, Janet!"

"Hey, Jetfire," I returned. "Hey, Sideswipe."

They both arrived at the couch and Sideswipe leaned over the back resting his chin on his folded arms, Jetfire moving to kneel by the table. The red and white 'bot looked at me and brought up his hand, holding out both my notebook and my cell phone.

"Here you are, one modified communications device and one bundle of vegetation with incredible illustrations," he told me with a smile.

I laughed and reached over to retrieve them. "I thought I told you it's called a book, Jetfire."

"My blue then," he chuckled. He stood up and began to walk to his usual spot, the computer. He stopped briefly to lean over and say something to Ironhide. "Nice picture, mate."

The black and silver Autobot shot him a terrifying glare and growled. I tensed up, afraid he was going to do something, but was relieved when nothing happened.

"A bit grouchy, isn't he?"Mom asked.

"Yeah," I said smiling slightly, "but that's just him." I suddenly let out a wide yawn, covering my mouth only halfway through.

"Eww!" Sunstreaker exclaimed in clear disgust. "What was that?"

"Something that shows it's bedtime," my mom answered sternly.

I frowned. "Aw, Mom…it's not like I have school tomorrow."

"I don't care, just do as I say."

"Wait… bedtime equals recharge-time, right?" Sideswipe asked, raising his head slightly. I nodded and he smiled. "Well, then allow me to be the 'bot to show you to your quarters!" He quickly walked around to the table and helped us down. When we were on the floor he stood up and turned toward the hallway to Ironhide's room. "This way, ladies." He began to walk so my mom and I didn't hesitate to follow.

We entered the hallway and Sideswipe was standing right next to the first door on the right, Ironhide's room being the next one over. When we reached it he moved in front of the massive door and it opened. Mom and I each let out a gasp.

"Ladies," Sideswipe began with a smile, "I present to you your own specially accommodated quarters designed specifically for organics."

The huge room was obviously originally designed to be a large room for a single Autobot, but the main parts such as the recharge berth and the giant desk were gone. The two large cylinders remained, for a reason I didn't know. To the left of them were a few devices that looked a lot like essential household electronics. On the other side were two military-style cots that were larger than normal, each with a queen-sized mattress. In the corner by the electronics was what looked like another room with a standard human-sized door that could have easily led to a bathroom.

"Sideswipe, this is incredible!" I said in awe. "How did you guys do this?"

The red 'bot smiled and shrugged. "Oh, with a little research and a little help we managed to pull it off nicely. All there really needs to be is someone to go out and gather foodstuffs for your refrigeration unit and you should be all set!"

I looked up at him and smiled widely. "Did I already tell you that I loved you?"

"Well," Sideswipe said slyly, "my CPU's glitchin' up a bit so I can't quite process if the event ever occurred…"

"Oh shut up," I said, shaking my head. "I love you anyway…you glitch-head."

It was dark, and outside of our own room the base had grown quiet. I lay on my side fully awake. In the bed to my right I could hear my mom snoring softly. I couldn't get to sleep. I was laying awake the whole time, wondering what I was going to do. It had fully begun to sink in that I was totally cut off from the world that I knew and grew up in. I couldn't go to school; I couldn't go shopping with my friends—heck I couldn't even TALK to them!

I suddenly frowned. _Not if I can help it._

Slowly I sat up, my blanket sliding off and I shivered at the cool air. "Mom," I whispered, to see if she was awake. To my relief she didn't answer.

Carefully, I leaned over to the other side of my bed and reached under it. I grabbed my jacket and pulled, sliding it out. I felt around on top of it. Finally, I found what I was looking for. I sat back up on my bed, clutching my phone in my hand. I flipped it open and I instantly had to close my eyes. I had to wait a moment to let them adjust to the bright light that seemed to cover my face.

I opened my eyes and pressed the side button, silencing the phone. After doing that I quickly went through my contacts and found the name that I was looking for: Marcie Chase.

Before pressing the send button I glanced over at Mom, who was still asleep. I put the phone to my ear and listened as it rang. I prayed that Jetfire and Ratchet's chip worked, though I already knew that it would.

The earpiece suddenly clicked as someone picked it up. "Hello?" asked a tired voice.

"Marcie?" I whispered. "Is that you?"

"Uh-huh," Marcie replied. "Who's this?"

"It's me!" I told her in a hushed voice. "It's Ellie!"

"Ellie! Wha-what happened to you? Are you alright?"

"Marcie, calm down!" I hissed. "I don't want you waking up your whole house!"

"Oh – sorry!" Marcie said in a quieter voice. "B-but Ellie! What happened to you? Weren't you kidnapped?"

"I was," I told her with a sigh, "but as the guy was making off with me one of my friends saw us and stopped us. I'm hanging out at their place right now."

I heard Marcie breathe. "Well that's a relief," she said. "But then I heard your mom disappeared."

"She's here too, don't worry. I just wanna know, what's been going on since I left?"

"Well," Marcie began, "both my family and Emma's family were interviewed by the police, but we both luckily had alibis. The whole school knows you're gone." After she said that she was quiet. "Ellie," she said after a moment, "when are you coming back?"

I sighed. I had to tell her sooner or later. "Marcie, I can't come back," I told her, "…at least not right now. Nobody knows where we are and it's probably best that it's kept that way."

"Not even the police know where you are?"

I shook my head, even though she couldn't see me. "No."

I heard her let out a heavy breath. "Well, then," she began, "has it ever occurred to you that they could be tapping into my cell phone to see if I knew where you were?"

My heart jumped. "What?" I asked, trying my absolute best to stay quiet. "They're listening to us right now?"

"Highly unlikely," Marcie said calmly. "I already have an alibi, so they would have no reason to listen in on my conversations."

I frowned. "So why did you suggest it?"

Marcie chuckled on the other end. "I just wanted to mess with you." I grumbled. "But…aren't you aware that they can trace your cell phone if you use it?"

"Don't worry about that," I told her. "My friends here are whizzes at electronics and stuff."

_More than you would think._

"They came up with this chip that makes any calls I make totally invisible."

"Hm," Marcie said on the other end. "That might be why you didn't show up on my caller ID."

I sighed. "Maybe." Both of us were quiet until I finally said, "Marcie… you probably don't realize but I absolutely CANNOT come back. It's not safe since the bad guys know where I live, and I don't wanna put you or Emma in any danger."

There was silence on the other end, and I held my breath. "Then why are you calling?" Marcie asked quietly.

I let out my breath. "I wanted you to know that I was alright," I told her. "And I want you to be careful. That guy who took me, he and his friends are incredibly dangerous—more than you can imagine. I called you instead of Emma because, well, you know how she is."

I could practically see Marcie nod in agreement. "Indeed," she said. "I'll take her someplace secret and tell her tomorrow. We can't have her making a scene."

"And Marcie," I continued, "please don't try and call me. The reason I'm calling you now during the night is because everyone here told me NOT to try and contact you. If I need to talk to you I'll be the one calling, okay?"

Marcie sighed. "I understand," she said softly. "Take care of yourself, alright? And Ellie…"

"Hm?"

"I'm glad you're alright."

I had to smile. "Thanks, Marcie," I told her gratefully. "Good night."

"Good night."

I waited until I heard the click of her hanging up. I sighed and closed my phone, holding it to my chest. Of course I couldn't tell my friends about the Transformers, but I was happy that at least they would know I was okay.

I leaned over and dropped the phone onto my jacket on the floor. I went back under the covers, resuming my sleeping position, with a smile. For a moment I thought I heard one of the Autobots outside the door, but I figured it was just my imagination. I closed my eyes and sighed, happy that my mind was relieved of some of my concerns. I could now go to sleep.

**Jetfire Dictionary help:**  
Ambo- Ambulance  
Blue- mistake


	10. Am I in Trouble?

Chapter 10

Once again it was morning at the Autobot base and, as I had done the day before, I found myself watching the television channel that seemed to always be on; Auto Races Mania. They raced anything from trucks to go-carts to minivans. Today though there were more well-suited classic cars taking the different tracks that were set up. I, of course, now sat on the table to watch, worried that one day one of the Autobots might not see me on the couch.

Watching races didn't suit me, but it wasn't like I had anything else to do; I wasn't allowed to go out shopping with my mom and Bumblebee for supplies. I could've asked one of the Autobots to take me out for a drive, but I would have had to ask Ironhide first…and for some reason he seemed incredibly ornery so I decided to steer clear of him.

But there was one thing I couldn't avoid if I tried…

"The circuitry of that guy!"

I rolled my eyes. "What now, Sunny?" I asked as the yellow and black Autobot came and hopped onto the right side of the metal couch, slightly bouncing Sideswipe who was already sitting down. "Someone forget to pick up a mirror for you?"

He glared at me. "No," he growled, leaning forward. "Jazz could've gotten me a DIFFERENT holoform, but no! He said Sides and I had to share!"

I shrugged. "So what's the big deal? You are twins after all."

"But I'm better-looking!"

"Oh, stop groaning," Sideswipe said, pushing his hand into his brother's faceplate. "Don't think I enjoy looking like a certain moron."

Sunstreaker shoved the hand away and shot him a dirty look.

"Well you guys can modify them to look different, can't you?" I asked, crossing my legs and leaning back on my hands. Both the 'bots blinked their optics at me and then turned to either side, nodding sheepishly. I threw my hands up. "Alright! Pop 'em up and I'll see what I can do."

I noticed the twins hesitating before finally reaching up and tapping the right side of their helmets. Instantly two blue beams shot out and stopped in front of me, showing two skinny men in their early twenties with blue eyes. They both had thick brown hair and both wore a grey t-shirt and tan cargo pants with sandals. Very plain and drab.

I just sat there, with my mouth slightly hung open. "Wow… you guys REALLY need my help."

"Well, it's not like my priority here was to study fashions of organics!" Sunstreaker protested, leaning back on the couch setting his arm on the armrest.

"No," Sideswipe told him. "Your priority was to act like that Bald Pitt human."

Sunstreaker glared at him and I couldn't help but laugh. "BRAD Pitt, Sideswipe."

The red Autobot looked at me in confusion. "Well then who the frag is Bald Pitt?"

I shook my head. "Oh boy."

"Now just stick the insignia here," I said pointing to a place on Sideswipe's holoform, "and yours here," I did the same to Sunstreaker's, "and that should do it!" I took a step back as the two made the appropriate changes to the holograms. "Now lemme take a look at you two."

Standing before me were still the same twenty-year-old brown-haired men I had seen minutes before, but after the changes they seemed almost unrecognizable.

Sideswipe's holoform was dressed in a black long-sleeved t-shirt and an unbuttoned collared crimson red shirt over it with a black Autobot insignia on the right side. His jeans were a little baggy and on his feet were running shoes. His hair fell to his left side and was tipped with red highlights.

Sunstreaker's holoform, however, looked completely different from his brother's. Beneath a black thin-fabric vest was a yellow short-sleeve zip-up hoodie with a black Autobot insignia on the left arm. He wore a pair of dark blue denim jeans and a black and white pair of converse sneakers. The brown hair fell on the opposite side from the Sideswipe counterpart and rather than red was highlighted in bright yellow.

I smiled, both surprised and pleased at the job I had done for the twins. "Well, don't you two look cute!"

"You sure?" Sunstreaker asked as he and his brother shut off the holoforms. "I don't look like some kind of human freak of nature, do I?"

"Too late for that, bro," Sideswipe said with a smirk on his faceplate.

"Why you-!"

"Stop!" Both robots looked at me with clueless expressions. "Just stop!" I told them again. "Geez, what's with you two? A few days ago you were getting along fine. What happened?"

"Actually we only get along half the time," Sideswipe said plainly.

"Yeah," Sunstreaker confirmed. "Whenever you came around though we both agreed to be nice." He shrugged. "But now that you're here 24-7 it doesn't matter anymore." He turned back to Sideswipe. "Now… you wanna run that by me again?"

I sighed and shook my head as the two continued their squabble. "Boys," I mumbled quietly.

I turned and sat down with my attention to the TV, ignoring what was going on behind me. The twins were more childish than I initially thought. They had the same sibling rivalry that I had seen so much with my friend Emma and her older brother Braxton. Braxton was normally quiet, but he and Emma still had disagreements; occasionally about the state of a vehicle that they were helping their dad with.

_I wonder if Marcie's told Em about me yet… _I thought. Emma was the kind of person who you wouldn't think you'd get along with right away simply because she was so hard and aggressive. It took a while for Marcie and I to get used to it, though Marcie still felt uncomfortable occasionally. Emma was extremely over-protective of us and was like a slightly older sister to us. I could imagine that she had gone nuts when she first found out that I was gone; she was just like that.

But I also wondered—did I make the right choice talking to Marcie? Optimus had to have a reason for telling me that they couldn't know anything about what was really going on. I originally thought that it was the fact of telling them that I was with giant alien robots and I made sure not to mention who exactly my friends were to Marcie; but now I was starting to have doubts.

"And then you had the audacity to go out and fetch her book JUST to make yourself look better to her!" Sunstreaker shouted to his brother.

I turned around and stared at them, wondering how they had changed subjects.

"Maybe I'm just not SELFISH like a certain 'bot," Sideswipe sneered. "You wouldn't go out for fear of dirt and dust on your windshield."

"You guys do know I'm right here…" I started to say.

"I told you before: I'm NOT selfish!" Sunstreaker screamed. "If anything YOU'RE selfish! Doing stuff to make yourself look better than me! And for the record, I wouldn't mind about the dirt!"

_Apparently they forgot_, I thought to myself.

"Hey!"

The three of us jumped at the boom of an angry Autobot's voice. I looked up to see Ironhide standing behind the couch where the twins sat, both looking too terrified to even turn around and look at the tall black and silver 'bot. I didn't blame them at all. His optics were glowing brightly with a scowl on his faceplate and his arms were folded. He didn't look happy at all.

"You two had better shut off yer vocal processors before I rip 'em right outta yer throats!" I shrunk back in fear, even though the threat wasn't directed at me.

Before either Sideswipe or Sunstreaker could respond Ironhide had already stomped off, mumbling loudly.

"Slaggin' kids, always arguin' an' getting' on mah circuitry. They're all alike; Cybertronian or organic. I'm too old ta deal with this scrap."

I sighed disappointedly. He mentioned "organics", so he had to be reffering to me. It seemed that the old Autobot had gone right back to hating me; and right after he said he would be my Guardian.

I shook my head. I just didn't understand him at all.

"Ellie."

I was startled slightly at the unexpected voice but turned toward the couch to see who said my name. Standing in Ironhide's old spot with both twins looking at him was the white and black security 'bot Prowl.

"I am curious as if I would be able to discuss something with you," the Autobot stated, looking down at me with his blue optics.

"Yeah, sure," I said without hesitation. I stood up and Prowl walked around to the table, offering me his hand.

"Aw, Prowl, don't take her away," Sideswipe whined as Prowl stood up straight with me sitting in his palm.

"Yeah, we only just started to hang out," Sunstreaker concurred in the same tone.

Prowl raised an optic ridge. "Of course you did." He turned and began heading toward the wall to the left of the computer. "Come on, Ellie."

"Like I have a choice?" I asked smiling.

We left the twins to watch the TV and entered a doorway in the wall. The white and black Autobot went down a hallway past an especially large door that was hinted red to another door which was blue. When Prowl stopped in front of it the door slid open with a whoosh sound and he stepped inside.

My eyes widened at the sight of multiple computer screens that were rowed along half of the wall to the left and the other half with a much larger screen covering it. The large screen showed different bluish designs and symbols with a few red blinking lights and the smaller screens looked like camera shots of different parts of the base, excluding individual rooms for each of the Autobots. On the right wall was what looked like a large desk with different gadgets that looked like giant palm pilots on it and on the far wall across the room was another door.

"Welcome, Ellie, to the Autobot security station of this base," Prowl told me, holding his hand out in front of him for me to see my surroundings better. He turned and began to walk toward the large computer screen. "This is Teletraan-One, a most valuable member of the Autobot team. It assists me in security of this base, warns us of any Decepticon activity, monitors Earth media broadcasts that are of interest to us, and much more. I brought you here because I wish to show you something."

"Really?" I asked. "What's up?"

The Autobot set me on his right shoulder and stepped forward toward the screen. He began tapping at places on the monitor with both hands, and each time the screen changed.

"Last night there was an unauthorized Autobot communications signal that came from within the base to a contact approximately thirty miles away," he replied. "The signal came specifically," he poked the screen one last time bringing up blueprints with a single red blinking dot on it, "from you and your mother's quarters." He turned his massive white head to see me. "Care to explain?"

I was speechless as I stared at the screen. The blueprints were of the Autobot base and the red dot was blinking over the spot where my room was, showing clearly what Prowl was talking about. Someone WAS outside of our room last night; it was Prowl who had probably seen the alert then and went to investigate.

I turned to look at him, my eyes still wide. "P-Prowl, you don't understand!" I croaked. "I…I…I wanted Marcie and Emma to know I was okay!" I was panicking. I hadn't thought at all about what would happen if I was caught. "I know I disobeyed Optimus and all," I continued hoarsely, "but…"

The white and black Autobot put his hand up, indicating for me to stop. I stared at him with a clueless expression as he quickly returned the screen back to its original state and turned, now moving toward the desk.

"Ellie, I am in no way angry with you," he told me calmly, seating himself on a stool and gently lifted me from his shoulder to set me on top of the chrome desktop. "I understand that you felt your friends needed to know that you were intact and uninjured. You saw an opportunity to inform them so and took it. Frankly, I'm proud of you."

I blinked. "But… what about what Prime said?"

Prowl leaned back slightly, setting his hand on the desk. "I see the logic in Optimus' order and precaution, however I believe that knowledge is a valuable factor in safety. Also, stress is a problem that should be avoided whenever possible. By contacting your friend Marcie Chase you have spared them of it and are allowing them to, as you humans say, 'breathe easier'."

I looked at my feet, shaking my head. "Look, Prowl, not that I'm not grateful of your reassurance," I began, "but I'm sure both Optimus and my mom are gonna give me a lecture or something." I sighed. "Something I'm REALLY looking forward to," I grumbled sarcastically.

"Is it necessary for them to be aware of what you've done?" I looked up at the Autobot and was surprised to see that he was smiling.

I shyly looked at my feet. "I guess not."

We suddenly became alert when we heard a loud beeping sound and saw that Teletraan-One's screen was flashing bright red. In my pocket my cell phone was vibrating and I didn't hesitate to pull it out and look at it. Prowl got up, tapping the side of his helmet, and went to the computer, flipping through the screens. I was getting a call from a number I didn't recognize: 286253233.

I opened the phone and listened as Prowl continued working, stopping occasionally to look at a certain screen.

I gasped when I heard Bumblebee's voice coming from my phone's earpiece. "Emergency… p-priority one! Decepticon cassettes attacked and… and Janet t-taken! Help… would be a good thing right now!"

"Bumblebee, this is Prowl," the security 'bot stated, examining the computer monitor. "Teletraan-One is locking onto your communications signal and I assure you that assistance will be dispatched immediately." He reached up and tapped the side of his helmet. "Prime, I suggest gathering a rescue team as soon as possible."

I only barely heard Optimus' voice before my phone slipped through my shaking hand and hit the desktop, breaking into two pieces with a clatter. I stared into nothingness, frozen stiff.

Mom was gone. She was gone…and I didn't know what to do. It just happened, like I was afraid that it would a few days ago. I was practically shaking apart with worry then, but now I was absolutely petrified. The Decepticons had her. She was gone.

"Ellie." I slowly looked up, almost like my neck was robotic, to see Prowl gazing down at me with concern. He set his hand, palm up, next to me. "Come with me," he told me gently. "We will get your mother back."

I hesitated before gradually shuffling over to the Autobot's hand and falling into a stiff seated position. I didn't even flinch when he moved his hand toward his chest to minimize the probability of me falling off and stood straight. I sat unmoving as the 'bot hurried out of the security room and down the hall.


	11. Look at what I've DONE!

Chapter 11

"Mom… Help! Mom… Help! Mom… Help!"

Again and again my own words kept echoing inside of my head as I sat in the passenger seat of a black four-door truck. Each time the memory of my futile cry for help had itself repeated in my mind I was painfully reminded of each and every mistake I made. Every blunder and problem I caused. Everything I had done wrong. It all led up to the awful thing that had happened… that I was responsible for: my mom being taken from me by the Decepticons.

"Mom… Help!"

Strike one: I had intentionally disobeyed her. I ignored her warnings, only being worried about getting in immediate trouble with her, and went through the old part of town to save time. There it was easy to get jumped, mugged, and left for dead. If it wasn't for Arcee stopping that man and saving me that's exactly what would have happened. I got lucky then.

"Mom… Help!"

Strike two: I made a dangerous mistake. Ironhide had come to me for help in searching for Arcee, but I made the dim-witted decision of bringing along something that would've been easily linked to my relations with the Autobots; my notebook full of sketches of each of the friendly Transformers. The Decepticons saw it and saw that I was their friend; a potential target.

"Mom… Help!"

And finally, strike three: I had shown the Decepticons my family. During my initial kidnapping conducted by Starscream I had regretfully called to my mother for help. She would not have been able to do anything then, yet I still called for her. All I did was give the Decepticons one more person to use and manipulate against the Autobots; a pawn in this horrible game of war.

It was my fault. I was the key element in everything leading up to the event. I had done everything wrong. I was to blame. It was all my fault.

"It's my fault..."

"It ain't yer fault."

I was startled at Ironhide's sudden statement, but I quickly realized that I had vocalized my last thought.

I turned to look at the holoform of an older grey-haired man in a red t-shirt and a leather jacket who appeared to be driving Ironhide's vehicle mode. I narrowed my eyes at him. "What do you mean it's not my fault?" I demanded. "Just look at what happened! Look what I've DONE! I'm a hazard to anyone around me!" With each statement I kept indicating to myself for emphasis.

The holoform moved his head toward me and just seemed to stare. "You don't really think that, do ya?" he asked.

I let out a huff. "Would I be saying it if I only half believed it?" I retorted. I leaned back into my seat and folded my arms over my chest, staring out the windshield at the back of Optimus' sixteen-wheeler form. "What difference does it make? I was the one that triggered all of this stuff to happen. I'm to blame for this." I was surprised when my eyes were beginning to sting. Instantly I turned to look out the side window to hide anything that indicated that I was about to cry. I said my next words slowly in an attempt to control the reaction. "The… the Decepticons have taken her… and," I tried to breathe but I took it in too sharply. I couldn't hold my feelings in anymore. "And doing G** knows what to her!"

I shouted those last words and instantly buried my head in my hands, bawling loudly. I sounded like a little girl who had her stuffed bear snatched from her.

Only it wasn't a stuffed toy that was taken from me… it was my mom; the only family I had left. I was mad. I was FURIOUS! I was angry at the Decepticons for taking her, but I was mostly angry at myself for letting such a thing happen. I was just AWFUL. I didn't care if Ironhide hated me for crying… I deserved it. I deserved any negative feelings that any of the Autobots felt toward me, no matter what it was.

"Ellie…"

Ironhide was suddenly cut off by a sequential beeping sound that came from within the cab. There was a click and I heard Optimus' voice. I quickly stopped crying and wiped my face on my sleeve, ready to listen.

"Ironhide," the Autobot leader stated in a commanding tone.

"Ironhide here, Prime," the 'bot responded loudly.

"Prowl just got visual on Bumblebee," Optimus told him. "I want you to go ahead and leave Ellie with him, and then I need you to scope out the area and make sure that it's secure. Can you do that?"

The holoform nodded, even though Prime couldn't see him. "Got it, Prime." There was another click, severing the connection, and I heard Ironhide's truck form automatically shift gears. "Hang on, kid," he warned me.

I barely had time to process what he said when the truck suddenly lurched forward, the unexpected force pressing me against the seat. Ironhide broke from the four-vehicle Autobot line and sped on the wrong side of the road past Optimus and Prowl, who were in lead of the small convoy.

I looked over the hood to watch for Bumblebee. We were practically in the middle of nowhere, some place between a nearby town and the forest where the Autobot Base was hidden. On the right side of the road were fenced off farmlands with cows staring at us as we passed. The other side had thick trees that were on a downward slope from the asphalt.

I noticed a section of the trees that had been shoved and snapped back, almost like bowling pins that refused to go down when they were hit. The "bowling ball" was a small yellow and black Camero that even from the distance that Ironhide still had to cover I could see was badly damaged.

The weapons specialist stopped his truck on the left side of the road and the passenger door automatically opened. Before I could do it myself my seatbelt clicked off and quickly retracted.

"Get out," Ironhide told me gruffly.

I hesitated before doing as I was told. As soon as I closed the door Ironhide revved his truck engine and sped off to follow Optimus' orders.

Without waiting another moment I turned my attention to the downed Autobot. Around him were groceries from the store that were out and scattered, the plastic bags mostly violently ripped open.

"Bumblebee!"

The black and yellow car shifted slightly. "Ellie?" he groaned questioningly.

I ran down the slope and moved closer to get a better look at him. I lost my breath when I saw the all different injuries and damages that he had. The tires appeared slashed, like someone had repeatedly taken a knife to each one. Across the hood were large deep claw marks and there was a crack on the windshield, which I was surprised hadn't just blown out into pieces of glass. There was also a cracked headlight that was hanging out of its socket by a single wire.

But the worst was the driver side door. It appeared that something had dug in its claws and ripped from his side, leaving it to hang with thick purple liquid flowing from broken tubes.

"Oh my G**," I said quietly, still gaping. "Man, are you okay?"

"Dunno," Bumblebee mumbled tiredly. "Is my door still attached?"

I gulped softly. "More or less."

The Camero sighed. "Great," he muttered.

"You don't sound good," I told him. "How much of that purple stuff did you lose?"

"Purple stuff?" he asked. I was surprised when he began moving and I could hear something that sounding an engine straining to start.

"No, no, no, don't transform," I told him, stepping forward and reaching up to set my hands on the fender just above his tire. "You could hurt yourself even more. Look…" I quickly shed my green jacket and carefully climbed closer to see the leakage, "let me just see if I can stop this bleeding." I stood where it felt comfortable on the downed trees and examined the wound to figure out how to cover it.

I nearly fell down when the Autobot suddenly giggled. "Hey… did you get taller?" he asked lazily.

I looked at him, bewildered. "What?"

"Well," Bumblebee started, almost casually, "first time I saw you, you only went up to my thigh." He sighed, and it sounded like he could have been smiling. "But now, I can see your face without having to bend down. Gee… as far as humans go, you're pretty cute."

I instantly felt my cheeks heat up, but I tried to shake it off. "No, Bumblebee," I told him seriously, attempting to ignore his comment, "I didn't get any taller. I had to climb up so I could get to your door, okay? Now do me a favor and just, eh, hold still."

"Will do, Captain Cutie."

This time I let my face turn red, but I did my best to focus on the problem at hand. I needed to stop the purple stuff from coming out, or at least slow it down, even though I didn't know what it was.

I barely finished doing what I could when Prowl, Optimus, and Ratchet had stopped on the nearby road and transformed. They began heading toward us, but the medical officer was the first to reach us.

"Primus, Bumblebee, what happened to you?" Ratchet demanded as he began inspecting the damages, even sprouting a device from his arm that he moved across the little Camero, making small beeping and clicking sounds.

"Hi, Mom," Bumblebee moaned a little happily. "No, I'm fine… just played a little rough during basketball practice."

Ratchet scowled. "Blast it!" he growled, sweeping the device over my crude patch job. "He's lost too much Energon to even think straight! If we're not careful he could overheat his processor! Listen, kid, DON'T TRANSFORM!"

"I figured that much," I muttered.

"Why can't I move my legs?" Bumblebee inquired.

"I don't get it," I told Ratchet. "He was talking just fine a minute ago."  
"Loss of bodily fluids in both humans and Autobots can cause confusion pretty quickly," Ratchet explained, testing the partially disembodied door and producing gasps from the Camero. He turned to me to me, raising an optic ridge. "Good job on the patch."

"Whatever," I sighed.

"Ratchet, your evaluation?" Optimus asked, staring at the medical 'bot expectantly.

"Could be better, Prime," Ratchet reported without turning away from Bumblebee. "I can't do anything here. He's been losing Energon fluids and is what the humans would call 'loopy'."

"I saw a kitty and a birdie today," Bumblebee said suddenly. "They didn't like me too much."

"That's an understatement," Ratchet grumbled.

But Prowl looked surprised. "'Kitty and birdie'?" he asked, taking a step forward. He turned to his leader. "Optimus, don't you recall Bumblebee mentioning 'Cassettes' in his initial distress call?"

Optimus nodded. "Indeed."

"Prime, can we do this later?" Ratchet asked with a hint of urgency. "We need to get Bumblebee back to base if I'm going to save him."

"Of course," Optimus said understandingly. He turned around and suddenly transformed into his vehicle form. "Ratchet, Prowl, hook him up – but carefully. I'll tow him back to base with me."

"Yes sir," Prowl acknowledged.

I stepped back to allow the Autobots to retrieve their fallen comrade, going to either side of him and lifting him from the trees that suspended him from the ground.

"Now listen, Bumblebee," Ratchet told him, "I need you to stay still. We're gonna get you to base and we're gonna get you fixed up. You'll be yourself in no time."

The little Camero was taken down from the trees and set down with the front tires up on the hitching portion of Optimus' truck form, secured by chains and prepared to go without falling off.

"Prowl," Optimus stated, "salvage what supplies you can and bring them back with you to the base. Ratchet and I will move ahead to get Bumblebee to the repair bay."

"I'll stay here and help out," I told them seriously.

"No," Optimus countered quickly, "it's too dangerous. The Decepticons could possibly return."

"They won't," Prowl assured him. "They already have Janet and there is no logical reason for them to go after Ellie."

I looked at Ratchet who in turn was looking at Optimus, waiting for a reply.

Finally, the trucker let out a mechanical sigh. "Permission to remain here with Prowl is granted," he said quietly. "But please try and make it quick… we can't have humans spotting you either."

"Alright, I get it!" I growled loudly, causing everyone to jump slightly in surprise. "Just go and find out where Mom is!"

I sat on my heels with my hands on my lap at the foot of the patient recharge berth in the repair bay… watching. A yellow and black Camero sat in front of me, his front faced toward me, and the medical 'bot Ratchet dabbing at the leakage of Energon with a large towel. My jacket lay to the side, dyed a shiny purple-blue color from the Cybertronian body fluids.

But I didn't care about it. I was more focused on my Autobot friend. Bumblebee's wounds were my fault and I wanted to be sure that he would recover perfectly and that Ratchet would do his job right.

The medbot finally set down the towel by my jacket and reached for some nearby clippers big enough for an Autobot to use. He carefully began snipping and preening Bumblebee's exposed wires, getting them ready to be replaced. I continued to watch eagerly, waiting as if something was going to happen.

"Ellie…"

Not long before Ratchet had been able to stop the Energon from flowing out and had apparently done a transfusion for the little yellow 'bot's missing supply. I looked at Bumblebee expectantly after he had spoken.

"Erm… not that I'm not happy about you being worried about me and all," he continued, "but you're kinda making me nervous."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "So?" I asked.

The yellow car shifted slightly, causing a grunt from Ratchet for the small inconvenience.

"What, is it illegal for me to be worried about my FRIEND?" I prodded. "Just because I'm a lowly human I can't show concern for a different species?"

"No, but—"

"It's the way you're staring at him," Ratchet told me, holding Bumblebee firmly with a palm over the top of his body while he worked. "It's almost like one of those massive Guardian 'bots back on Cybertron; staring at you like they're staring 'straight to your spark' kinda thing. One of my best friends is a Guardian 'bot, but it's still unnerving."

I growled slightly. "So what do you want me to do?" I asked expectantly.

"Well," the medbot began as he continued to work, "considering the fact that the patient is nervous during his treatment, and you being a contributor to it, I believe it may be better for him if you just left for the time being."

I frowned even more. "Fine," I huffed, standing up.

Ratchet set down the tools and reached over to help me to the floor. I wrapped my arms around his thumb and he raised his hand, lifting me from the berth with my legs dangling.

Once I was firmly on the ground I just put my hands in my pockets in my pockets as the medic stood up straight and went back to the repair job.

"I appreciate the concern, Ellie," Bumblebee called before the door slid closed behind me.

I stopped and looked back toward the door. I sighed. That was only more proof that the Autobots thought I was a problem.

I shook my head. Why? Why was I such a liability? Why couldn't I do anything right?

I moaned and put my hands over my eyes. "Ugh… what am I going to do?"


	12. An Unexpected Call

Chapter 12

I made my way across the main room to the hallway where Prowl's security office resided. The only 'bots who were in the room, Jetfire at his usual computer, the twins watching TV again but with a sadder aura, and Arcee standing in the corner looking at her feet and hugging herself, noticed my entrance and watched me but remained silent; though I saw Sideswipe make a move to get up, but his brother quietly stopped him.

I was secretly grateful. There was only Autobot that I really wanted to talk to, and that was Prowl. He seemed to be the only one I felt comfortable conversing with. Anyone else just seemed…unappealing. I was still uneasy around Optimus because I knew he was hiding something from me, and of course Ironhide was out of the question.

I didn't even want to talk to Marcie or Emma. It wasn't just for the obvious reason that I had broken my phone by dropping it, but also for the fact that I simply didn't want them to know what I was going through. For my friends' sakes, I just wanted to leave it at I was safe from the bad guys.

I reached the blue-tinted door and knocked as hard as I could when it didn't open at my approach.

"Prowl?" I asked, slowly rubbing my upper arms with my hands. "It's me, Ellie. Can I… can I talk to you?"

I didn't even flinch when the massive door whooshed opened with incredible speed and allowed me access. Looking at the ground I shuffled inside past a set of silver feet that stood by the door, which was locked once it closed.

"Uh… sure… come on in."

I didn't recognize the voice as Prowl's and a quick glance told me that it was Jazz who opened the door. Prowl himself was sitting in a stool in front of the desk holding one of the giant palm pilots as if he was looking at it before I came in.

He turned his head to look at me. "What is it, child?" he asked gently, setting the device on the desktop.

He reached downward to retrieve me from the floor, so I sighed and dropped myself onto the security 'bot's out-stretched hand. Jazz strode over and leaned himself against the wall to the right of the desk on his back with his arms and legs crossed. Prowl sat up and deposited me onto the desk, his optics on me.

"Yeah, what's up?" Jazz inquired. "Far 's I know you was in da medbay for da past three cycles."

My brain worked a little and figured out that he meant hours.

"I was," I told him, sitting down and bringing my knees to my chest, "but Docbot kicked me out. N-not literally, of course!" I quickly added when I noticed both 'bots staring at me.

"That ain't all that's eatin' ya, is it?" the silver 'bot asked with a sigh.

"I concur," Prowl stated. "Despite the limited time that we've known you I understand that you are usually able to, as you humans often say, 'keep your head' about such things as Bumblebee getting damaged in a Decepticon attack."

"Yeah… if it wasn't MY FAULT!" I shouted.

Prowl blinked. "I don't believe I under—"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, COME ON!" I said loudly. "The Decepticons wouldn't have gone after him if he didn't have my mom, and he wouldn't've had her if *I* hadn't dragged her into this!"

"Hey, kid," Jazz said suddenly, leaning down to get a better look at me, "don't get all hot-headed at him. He ain't blamin' ya for anythin'."

I frowned, clutching both feet with my hands, and looked down. "That's 'cause he's too nice," I mumbled quietly.

I was startled when Jazz suddenly smiled and laughed. He walked over and draped his metal arm over the security 'bot's shoulders. "Guess you da only person tha' thinks so," he said cheerfully. "Everybody else thinks tha' he's too strict or not laid back enough."

"Jazz?"

The silver 'bot looked at Prowl. "Yeah, Prowl-man?"

"Move the arm or lose the arm."

Jazz smiled with his dental plating showing. "Sure thing, dog," he said, doing as the police car told him.

I grumbled and set my head on my knees. I hadn't counted on Jazz being in the security office as well as Prowl. I only wanted to talk to Prowl.

"Anyway," Jazz began, his voice having more seriousness in its tone, "ya wanna give yo human friends a call?"

I was astounded. I turned my head to see him. "B-but my phone's broken!" I said quickly. "And besides, didn't Optimus say…"

"He did," the lieutenant told me. "But after a bit o' convincin' he said he'd allow it 's long as ya don't tell them 'bout us bein' robots. Besides…" he smiled again, "ya could only do so in secret for so long."

I stopped breathing and just stared at him.

"Jazz is a very trusted officer, and he does share some of my views on certain things," Prowl stated.

"So, he's basically your best friend," I said quietly.

The security 'bot raised an optic ridge, but continued. "I told him about what you had done and he agreed with me, saying that your friends did indeed need to have a general idea of your status."

"An' yo communicatin' device?" Jazz added. He reached out toward me with something in between two of his fingers. "Ratchet said the power source just needed ta be snapped back on. It was an easy fix."

I silently took the phone with both hands. But instead of opening it to make sure it worked I just held it by my feet and stared.

"Is something wrong?" Prowl asked.

"I can't tell them," I said softly. "I can't tell them that Mom was taken after I said that we were okay."

The police 'bot nodded. "I understand," he told me. "Nobody is forcing you."

I set my phone down and buried my head in my arms. "Augh!" I exclaimed, muffled by my position. "I hate my life! What the heck is wrong with me?"

"Nothin', far 's I can see, kid." I looked at the silver second-in-command with a glare. He flinched back slightly and I could tell his optics were wide from being startled behind his visor.

"Ellie…" Prowl began, causing me to look at him, "nothing is wrong with you. You may believe that you had made a mistake that cost your mother her freedom, but you did no such thing."

I continued to stare at him, and I could feel the corners of my eyes getting wet. I blinked to try and get it away, but it didn't help. "But… didn't you hear me?" I asked him. "All that stuff I did? It was my fault."

"It is not," Prowl told me again. "Nobody is blaming you at all. We would not be a very good team if we posted blames on our friends." He shook his head slightly. "No… if anything the fault is OURS." My eyes widened, but I continued to listen. "Bumblebee and Janet should have at least had an escort along with them as they gathered supplies, and we should have been monitoring you more closely to prevent Starscream's attempt at kidnapping you."

"An' we shoulda beat that guy offline in da first place!" Jazz added loudly, as he came to lean an elbow on his friend's shoulder. It took him a moment to notice that Prowl was giving him an odd look, but he didn't move.

"Ellie," Prowl continued, turning back to me with a softer expression, "you are a friend to the Autobots and we would never harbor any negative assumptions toward you. You are far too kind of a spark for ANYONE to do such an unkind thing to you."

"He's basically sayin' tha' we love ya too much," Jazz said suddenly with a grin. "All o' us – not a single 'bot excludin'."

I frowned and set my head on my knees again. "Except for Ironhide," I mumbled sadly. "He thinks I'm a crybaby and he HATES me."

Jazz looked at me as if he was totally surprised. "Now wait a minute, Ellie…"

Before he could continue, both Autobots froze as if they heard something.

I tilted my head, confused. "Guys?"

Prowl held up his hand to silence me and then double-tapped the side of his helmet. The next thing I heard was Optimus' voice:

"This is Optimus Prime… I need Prowl and Jazz to meet with me in my office. It is urgent."

"Gotcha, Prime," Jazz acknowledged, a finger on the side of his helmet. "Prowler 'n I will be there in a klick. Jazz out." He removed his hand, stood up, and began heading toward the door.

_Of course,_ I thought with a frown. _They still need to plan to save Mom. They can't spare too much time talking to me._

"Ellie…"

I looked up to see the white and black Autobot staring down at me with his baby-blue optics.

"Would you like to accompany us?" he asked gently.

I blinked. "Could I?"

The 'bot nodded and rested his hand, palm up, on the desk. Taking a moment to stow my phone in my pocket, I made my way to the offered seat. Once I was secure Prowl stood up and followed after Jazz out into the hall and to the first red-tinted door that was ultimately the Autobot leader's office.

Optimus' office wasn't exactly as I had pictured it. When I was first told Mom had to speak to the leader while I was in the medbay on the first day I had basically pictured it as a large-scale version of a counselor's office at school with a phone, some pictures, a calendar, and maybe some posters on the wall. I frowned slightly at how naïve I had been.

It was a lot like Prowl's office, but it was MUCH larger for the tall trucker to reside in comfortably. The wall of course lacked Teletraan-One and simply had five medium-sized monitors rowed neatly, each presenting an apparent screensaver of the red Autobot symbol slowly rotating on a vertical axis.

Of course there was a desk, but it was a bit more cluttered than Prowl's. The giant palm-pilots weren't stacked as straightly, a couple laying in front of Optimus who sat just behind the desk in a stool, and there was some sort of monitor set on top and the corner closest to the door turned to face him.

At the far end of the room was a door just like in Prowl's office. I had come to realize that they led to private quarters for each 'bot. It would have made sense for them to be able to access their work spaces quickly in some sort of emergency.

Jazz was already seated in one of two metal chairs that were set to face the desk, while Optimus himself was leaned over with his elbows on the desktop and his fingers interlocked in front of his mask. He watched as Prowl came in, holding me with his hand against his chest, and sat down in the remaining chair to Jazz's right.

I didn't have to look carefully to know Optimus was looking at me with a raised optic ridge.

"I don't believe that I had requested you to participate in this discussion," he told me calmly, "but, seeing as it concerns your mother, I do believe that you are entitled to be here."

"Dang right I am," I huffed folding my arms. I suddenly froze, realizing I used a harshness that I wasn't entirely aware I still had toward the Autobot leader. I instantly bent my head to the floor and put my hands on my knees nervously. "S-sorry…" I mumbled.

"It's alright, little one," Optimus stated, causing me to look up at him. He sat up and set his hand on the desk before him. "I must admit, it may be deserving of me."

I blinked, wondering if he knew what I thought of him before.

"I had disregarded you in hopes to keep you safe," Optimus continued. "Keeping secrets that I assumed you were too young to know about. But I had only caused you discomfort around me, and I'm sorry."

I smiled and closed my eyes, letting out a small laugh. "Thanks, Optimus," I said, slightly shaking my head, "but can we please figure out how to get Mom back?"

For amoment the Autobot leader stared at me, but then he shut off his optics and nodded. "Of course…I completely agree. Let's begin the discussion. I suppose I can talk to you about it later."

The rest of us nodded in agreement.

"I believe we should begin with what Jazz and I had evaluated about probable locations for Decepticon activity," Prowl stated, bringing his hand down to set me on his knee.

Optimus slightly inclined his head. "Excellent," he remarked. "Tell me… what have you found out?"

Beside us Jazz drooped his head slightly and sighed. "Not much, boss," he reported. "Right now, tha only place tha' has the most promise is tha' old scrap yard, but it don't have too much ta support it. There's no guarantee tha' da 'Cons are still there."

"Then where could they be?" I asked.

"If you are trying to find us, Autobots, all you have to do is ASK."

Instantly Prowl shot up from his seat and moved toward the door, cradling me in his hand. He pressed himself against the wall and held me to his chest.

"Do not make a sound," he whispered, bending his head down.

I realized that he was hiding me when I saw Jazz standing up and facing the five screens on the back wall with Optimus walking around the desk to stand by him. Someone had clearly appeared on the screens as a video link, but from my position I couldn't see who it was.

"Megatron!" Jazz exclaimed like a Decepticon walked right through the door.

Optimus stepped in front of him with an arm extended to stop him as if he was going to attack. "Stand down, lieutenant," Optimus ordered. "Let's hear what he has to say."

I heard someone chuckle. "A wise choice, Prime," said a voice, which was apparently Megatron.

His voice made me shudder with every time I heard it. It sounded aged, rusted, and kinda like he was talking into a can. I didn't like it. I probably preferred listening to Starscream rather than Megatron. Just by the sound of it Starscream seemed harmless in comparison.

"Where did your security officer run off to?" the obvious Decepticon continued with a hint of evil playfulness. "To trace my communication signal, no doubt." He laughed and I shivered.

"It's difficult to fool you," Optimus told him, narrowing his optics, "but not impossible. What do you want?"

"Just a simple contest," Megatron replied, which I assumed he was smiling at. "I have something you want and you have something I want, but we both cannot have possession over it." He paused. "I know you have the girl," he stated darkly. "Despite my WORTHLESS second-in-command's claims that he had killed her I learned from the other human female she is still alive and currently in your custody."

I gulped and bit my lip. He had my mom, and he got information from her. I didn't want to imagine what kind of method he had used to do so.

"And what do you propose, assuming we had her at all?" Optimus asked, folding his arms over his massive chest.

"A battle between leaders – you and me," Megatron answered. I could visualize a smile creeping onto his faceplate. "Winner takes all. Meet at the old scrap yard." He paused. "I'll be waiting."

He laughed, giving me another shudder, and the screens turned off. Cautiously, as if he was afraid Megatron might appear again, Prowl detached himself from the wall and slowly stepped toward Optimus and Jazz. I sat in his hand with my arms around his thumb, almost frozen from the unexpected call. Optimus stood with his arms still folded, looking at the ground.

I swallowed. "Optimus?"

The red and blue 'bot didn't move and I motioned for Prowl to bring me closer to him.

"Optimus?" I asked again, reaching out to touch his arm.

The massive Autobot slowly shook his head. "I can't do it," he said quietly. "I can't meet Megatron's terms."

"S-sure you can!" I told him, sounding more confident than I felt. "You can beat him!"

"That's not the issue," the Autobot leader stated a little roughly. I was startled, but I didn't draw back. He sighed and turned his head to look at me. "Megatron is just as powerful as me, if not more so. That's why he is the leader of the Decepticons."

I was surprised. "But… then what is Starscream?"

Jazz snorted quietly. "He only wishes he was their leader," he mumbled.

"Evidently," Prowl began, "he was merely put in charge until Megatron himself arrived, with Soundwave and his Cassettes. That…" he turned an optic to me, "is what Bumblebee spoke about when he mentioned the 'kitty' and the 'birdie'."

I nodded and looked back at Optimus. "But you can beat Megatron! He doesn't stand up to you, bossbot!"

"It's his request that I wager your freedom to save your mother," Optimus told me. "However," he gazed down at me with dark blue optics, "that is a decision I am unwilling to make, even WITH your permission."

I stared at him sadly. "But…"

The Autobot leader unfolded his arms and reached over, gently patting my head with two fingers. "I am sorry," he said quietly. "I know how much you love your mother and how much you're willing to risk yourself for her, but I want you to be safe. I won't let you get hurt. The only freedom I have any say in is my own." He dropped his hand to his side and let out a heavy breath. But then he suddenly stopped, his optics wide and glowing slightly more than usual.

Prowl and Jazz noticed this as well. "Yo, Optimus?" Jazz asked slowly. "Whatcha thinkin', man?"

"There's no other option," Optimus stated. "I must offer MYSELF as the wager."

"What?" Jazz and I exclaimed simultaneously.

"No, Optimus, you CAN'T!" I told him loudly. I remembered seeing Arcee at the old scrap yard, Starscream with the weapons aimed at her. "Th-those Decepticons… they're MONSTERS! They'll – they'll torture you!"

"I concur," Prowl said calmly. "Considering Megatron's resentment toward you it is highly likely that he will indeed put you through incredible pain as a prisoner, should you lose. He will not hold back."

"All the more reason that it should be me and no one else," the red and blue Autobot remarked seriously, turning his head to look at the security 'bot. "Megatron hates the Autobots, but most of all he hates me. I doubt he'll want to pass up such an opportunity as this."

I continued to look at him. "But… I don't want you to," I said quietly.

Jazz sighed. "Ain't no use now, little lady," he told me, putting his hands on his hips. "Optimus ain't an easy 'bot ta convince different once he's made up his mind."

I frowned. "But you were going to tell me what the Decepticons are doing! What are they after that has to do with my family?"

My last plea, I knew, was shot down when Optimus folded his arms again and turned his head to look at the screens, which were reverted back to the rotating Autobot symbol. "There may be another Autobot that could explain even better than me," he said calmly. He turned back to the security 'bot. "Prowl, take Ellie to her quarters. Jazz, send out a request for all Autobots to meet in the main room for team division."

Jazz nodded. "You got it, Prime," he said, throwing a thumbs-up sign.

I didn't protest as Prowl walked out of the office, clutching me close to his white chest. I just didn't know what else to say.


	13. Restlessness

**Chapter 13**

I lay quietly on my back covering the dark green covers of my cot, left arm draped over my eyes.

It was only a few moments ago that I had checked the time on my cell phone, and it told me that two hours had passed since Prowl had dropped me off at my room and told me to stay put. The past two hours he and the other Autobots had evidently been deliberating a plan of action, and quite possibly had already set it in motion.

The thought made me frown. They could have already left, leaving me alone in the base, not knowing how to work any of the communications or surveillance systems, to worry over what could possibly be happening to them. It was just as bad as keeping secrets from me, and I didn't like it. If any of the Autobots got hurt or WORSE I didn't know what I'd do. I was terrified of it.

I sighed, trying to relax, and I drummed my fingers on my phone beside me. Maybe if I just eased off on thinking about it… maybe the whole thing would go quickly and I didn't have anything to worry about.

"Ugh," I mumbled, "I didn't even convince myself with that."

I couldn't stand it anymore. I was not raised to be the good little girl who stayed back and out of the way while my friends were out fighting to protect me and the whole rest of the human race. I HATED it. I just had to do something!

In a single movement I got off the bed and put my phone in my pocket. I crossed the distance to the door in a surprisingly short amount of time; I didn't even slow down when I reached it and it slid open for me to leave. I went through the hall, trying to think about what I could do to help there at the base. Once I set foot in the main room though, I stopped.

Sitting at the giant-sized computer like he always was I saw the tall white and red Autobot, Jetfire. He didn't notice my entrance and was just staring at the monitor, occasionally reaching up to touch it, changing the screen, and typing on the keyboard stretched out in front of him.

I was confused. I thought Optimus had taken ALL the Autobots for the rescue mission.

_Maybe Jetfire doesn't like fighting,_ something in the back of my mind told me. I decided to agree with it. Jetfire seemed more like a scientist or something rather than a fighter, despite his size. He was also so nice and sweet… I couldn't imagine him fighting unless he really had to.

Suddenly, for some reason or another, the image of a huge green Autobot with a large metal jaw popped into my mind. When I tried to think more about it though it was gone and I couldn't get it back.

I blinked. "The F?" I mumbled questioningly to myself.

Jetfire, having apparently heard me, looked from the screen toward the hallway entrance where I still stood. His optics flickered and a smile cracked on his faceplate into a wide grin. "'Ello, spunk!" he said cheerfully.

If I tried I would have never been able to keep a straight face. One of the things that I loved about Jetfire was his thick Australian accent, even if I could only understand him half the time. "Hey, Jetfire," I returned with a smile. I began walking toward him."You decide to sit this one out or something?"

"I just don't like fighting," he told me, turning back to the computer. "Science is more interestin' to me and I ain't one to get into blues like the others." I stopped beside him and the computer and put my hands on my hips.

_I was right,_ I thought to myself. _That's kinda weird._

I sighed and sat on the floor, silently wishing there was a staircase or something I could climb up to see my friend better. "Jetfire, I wanna ask you," I began, "is there anything I can do to help the others out?" I shrugged. "I mean… I don't like waiting around for things to happen."

The large Autobot looked at me and smiled. "Sure thing, spunk," he said happily, pushing the stool back to stand up.

He reached down and allowed me to latch onto his fingers. I was swung onto his shoulder and he started going down the hallway to Prowl and Optimus' offices, stopping in front of the security room door. I was worried when it didn't open, but Jetfire reached up and typed a short sequence in a small number pad on the wall and the door slid aside.

Jetfire slightly ducked his head to step inside. Once we were in the room I quietly gasped and clutched to one of the Autobot's wings that were coming from his back.

"Oi, spunk, what's wrong?" he asked softly, glancing at me. I looked at him but then looked back into the room.

Sitting on in Prowl's stool, facing toward Teletraan-One, was Ironhide. He was leaned against Prowl's desk with his arms folded over his chest and his head fallen forward. Though he wasn't moving his mouth, there was a rumbling sound that came from him. It was almost like snoring, so I figured he was temporarily in recharge to conserve energy or something.

"The old bloke fell asleep on the job, eh?" Jetfire asked with an amused tone.

I just continued to stare at Ironhide. I was nearly certain that he still hated me, and I didn't want to be the one that was there when his nap was interrupted.

Jetfire moved and before I could stop him he was already at the weapons specialist's side, his hand on his shoulder and lightly shaking it.

"Ironhide?" the jet asked. "Hey, rise-n'-shine, piker."

The black and silver mech shifted and grumbled, causing me to duck against Jetfire's neck. The robot's left optic turned on and flickered slightly. He turned his head to look at the scientist. "Aw… waddaya want now?" he asked grumpily.

"The sheila said she wanted to help out," Jetfire replied. "I figured she could help me with the security."

Ironhide narrowed his optics. "So mah shift's over?"

Jetfire smiled. "'Course! Ellie 'n I'll take care o' things from here."

The weapons specialist looked at me and I whimpered quietly, pressing myself against Jetfire even more. He blinked, but then shut off his optics and sighed. Silently, he stood up from the stool and went past Jetfire, out the door, and into the hallway.

I was startled when Jetfire moved toward Teletraan-One. Once he stopped in front of the machine he folded his arms over his chest armor.

"G'day, Teletraan," he said loudly.

There was a short trilling of beeps and an automated voice responded: "Hello, Jetfire."

I blinked. I didn't know Teletraan-One could talk.

"Teletraan," Jetfire continued, "I need you to activate your voice command systems; accessible by Autobot Jetfire and the organic Ellie."

Teletraan-One beeped. "Acknowledged. Please produce vocal sample of the organic, designation: Ellie."

Jetfire looked at me and tilted his head toward Teletraan. He wanted me to "produce the sample".

I relaxed myself from holding onto him so tightly. "Well… what should I say?" I asked.

"Voice pattern downloaded and logged," Teletraan stated suddenly after beeping twice, catching me off guard. "When the user is in request of something simply state my name or the word 'command', afterwards stating your request. I endeavor to follow Autobot commands to the best of my abilities."

Jetfire's smile grew. "Great!" he exclaimed happily and he glanced at me. "Now you can use the security stuff without having to worry about bein' an ankle-biter."

I glared at him. "Is that a crack about my height?" I asked. "I can't help being a tiny human, okay?"

The white and red Autobot chuckled, bouncing me as his shoulders shook. "I wasn't makin' fun o' ya, spunky," he told me. "Now, ya want me to explain how ta work with Teletraan?"

I stopped my glare and quickly nodded, remembering what I was doing there in the first place.

The concept of security and observation in the Autobot base was easier than I thought it would be to understand. There were cameras and sensors everywhere and Teletraan-One was programmed to tell us if there was anything out of the ordinary.

The thing that interested me the most though was when Jetfire mentioned we could monitor the battle between Megatron and Optimus Prime if we wanted to.

I was staring at him. "You're kidding, right?" I asked from Prowl's desk where I now sat.

The scientist shook his head with an amused expression on his faceplate. "I'm not, sheila," he laughed with his arms folded. He spun around and faced Teletraan-One. "Teletraan, Wingblast eject."

Teletraan trilled beeps in response, and I almost jumped out of my skin when a panel on the wall by the door to Prowl's room suddenly opened like a cassette player. A thin, blue, cassette tape-looking block of technology flew out and soared through the air toward the desk. As it approached it unfolded with a familiar mechanical whir producing wings, talons, a tail, and a beaked head with glowing yellow optics.

The Cybertronian bird hovered above the desk before gently touching down on the chrome metal surface in front of me. I stared as it managed to flutter its metal wings and folded them against its body. The yellow optics fell on me and the 'bot tilted its head in curiosity, mechanically chirping. It was extremely small for a Cybertronian, only about as big as a Smart Car, but it was still bigger than me.

"This is our spy 'bot, Wingblast," Jetfire stated, leaning toward me with his elbows on the desk. "She's what we Cybertronians like ta call a Cassette."

I felt a small jolt of pain in my heart and gulped. "Isn't that what Prowl said had attacked Bumblebee?" I asked nervously.

The jet nodded. "Reckon," he replied. "But Wingblast here works with us. Wingblast?" The blue Cassette turned her head to look at him. "This is our friend, Ellie. She's been livin' 'ere for the past few solar-cycles."

Wingblast chirped and she moved her optics back to me. I continued to stare as she slowly came forward, her head brought low to match my eye-level. She stopped close to me and began moving her head around my body, examining me like a foreign object or something. The whole time I sat still and held my breath.

Finally, the 'bot drew her head back and looked at me again, her optics glowing. She let out a low clicking sound from her 'vocal' systems and I gulped, staring back at her. What happened next scared me out of my wits.

Wingblast shot her head forward and knocked me straight onto my back. She got closer and started nuzzling the edge of her beak into my stomach and I screamed.

"Je-Jetfire!" I yelled in desperation. "H-Help me!" I started swinging my arms around, trying to roll over and crawl away, but it was in vain. Soon, though, my screams turned into laughter. She was tickling me. "J-Jetfire – haha – please!" I pleaded, my eyes getting wet. "I-I can't take it! I – ha! – I'm too old for this! Hee-hee! P-please!"

I barely heard the white and red Autobot chuckle over my own squeals before he said, "I think she's had enough, Wingblast. Heh, heh, let 'er go."

I breathed in relief as the Cassette drew back, chattering cheerfully. I set my head back and laughed softly while I panted to make up for lost oxygen.

"Aw man…" I sighed, "the last time anyone did that to me was…" I suddenly stopped, my smile gone.

…_the day Dad left for the Philippines,_ I thought, mentally finishing my sentence. Now I remembered why I grew out of it… nobody was ever around to tickle me. Only my dad did it – it just wasn't my mom's thing to do. It was another characteristic of my dad that I missed… another characteristic that I knew I would never see again.

I was suddenly brought out of my daze when I found Wingblast's face almost touching my own and she let out a worried chirp. I gave her a smile, even though I didn't feel like it, and reached up to pat the side of her head. She blinked, but she carefully took the front of my shirt in her beak and pulled me up until I was standing on my feet. Again, she looked at me and chirped.

I sighed. "I'm fine, Wingblast," I told her. I turned to look up at Jetfire. "So…" I began, pushing aside the memory, "how can she help us with monitoring Optimus' fight?"

Wingblast suddenly made a rattling sound and something that looked like a security camera on a mechanical arm sprouted from her right shoulder. I was surprised when it turned and aimed at me.

Teletraan-One chimed and the large screen flickered, bringing up a life video feed of my face. Labels and info began masking over the image, scrolling up so fast that I couldn't read them all; I was surprised it was even in English.

"'S you can see," Jetfire began, "Wingblast's been mounted with a video system along with other sensors for heat, radiation, sound, and all that stuff. 'Cause o' her flight programming and build she can monitor and observe safely and secretly. Wingblast?" the blue Cassette listened. "Time to get into pozzy."

Wingblast chirped and spread her wings, taking off from the desktop. The door to the hallway opened and she soared through it and out of sight. It wasn't too long before Teletraan's screen showed the aspen forest outside of the base and went into the sky, which was still blue even though it was getting late in the afternoon.

"Shouldn't be too long until she comes on Prime an' Megatron," Jetfire told me. "This way, if something goes wrong, we can send back-up."

I nodded understandingly and sat back down. I folded my arms over my lap and leaned forward slightly to watch for the Autobots and Decepticons through Wingblast's camera feed.

But while waiting for about fifteen minutes neither Jetfire or I had said anything. I knew I wasn't gonna deal with the quiet very well, and it WAS going to take time for Wingblast to find the other Transformers…

"So… what was Ironhide's job in here?" I asked the scientist, breaking the silence that had fallen over us.

"Well," Jetfire began, "when the divvy van ain't here we each take turns takin' up his security job. When both he an' Big Boomer are gone we shut down our patrol shifts completely and basically put the base in lock-down unless we get orders otherwise."

I blinked. "Then we're breaking rules, aren't we?" I asked. "WE just sent Wingblast out to monitor."

The huge white and red 'bot grinned. "I won't tell Prime if you won't."

I couldn't help but laugh, slightly shaking my head. Who knew I'd be breaking rules with ANY of the Autobots when I first entered the base.

I glanced back at the monitor and it wasn't too long before I noticed what was apparently an aerial view of the old scrap yard. But something was wrong… nobody was there.

"Wait," I mumbled, "Megatron told Optimus to meet him in the scrap yard. Why isn't anybody here?"

"I dunno," Jetfire said, leaning forward and examining the screen. He looked like he expected someone to come out from behind the piles of junk. "Wingblast, give us feed on energy trails." He turned to me. "Maybe that'll tell us where everyone had gone off to."

Teletraan-One trilled a sequence of beeps as it received the information from the Cassette. Soon enough there were what appeared to be more than a dozen sets of Cybertronian-sized footprints leading from the yard. One group was a dark purple color while the other group was a crimson red color, much like the Autobot symbol in the main room. All the while I was looking at it there were labels that masked over for each individual set of prints, but again it moved too fast for me to read.

"They were here," I observed, "but they moved."

"That's not right," Jetfire breathed.

Suddenly, a thought came to me. A thought that I hoped wasn't going to be true.

"Wingblast," I stated loudly, "follow that trail. Keep out of sight, but find out where they went."

I heard the bird-like Autobot chirp a response and the video feed shifted, soaring over the trail as she did as I told her. I watched anxiously. I NEEDED to know what was happening, and I prayed it wasn't a trap like I thought.

The designated scrap yard property ended with a fence, even though there was still trash and junk lying about. However, the trail did not go through the abandoned neighborhoods like I expected. Instead, the area was more of an industrial section. There were some empty stores, and even a storage company, but there were a few warehouses of rusted aluminum roofs and cinderblock sides with all of the windows blown out from some event that happened so long ago.

_Probably from a gang war or something,_ I mused. But even the gangs left this area. From what I was told they were long since disbanded, but their effect on this part of the town of Tranquility was still evident.

"There we go," Jetfire suddenly spoke, snapping me from my thoughts.

Sitting in front of a large door to an especially long warehouse was a Cybertronian. I didn't recognize him at all; he was the same size as Starscream, but he had a lighter tan than him and also had dark purple trimming instead of black. At first I thought he could've turned into some kind of tank because on his calves were tank tracks and on his shoulders were what looked like cannons, but I thought again when I saw jet wings on his back. One thing was sure though… he was a Decepticon.

"Oh no," I moaned. "It was a set-up. It HAS to be a set up!"

"Looks like Blitzwing's only guarding," Jetfire told me. "Under normal circumstances the contest would've taken place out in the open where everyone could see. But if Megatron took everyone to a secluded area and had one of his men to guard and make sure no one got inside, then he's got something planned; something to tip the odds in his favor."

"So he's cheating," I said with a grumble. I sighed. "Great."

"It ain't surprising, spunk," Jetfire stated. "Anytime the 'Cons called one of these things he's dishonored the Cybertronian code of battle in some way. Optimus is well aware of that, but he still insists on playing fair."

"But we can help him, right?"

The scientist nodded. "We can," he replied, "but not with the original terms: a battle between him and Megatron. We can only offside by keepin' the other mongrels off him. He's gotta deal with Megatron himself."

I sighed. "In any case, I think we're entitled to go out to help. We've got to do something!"

"Too right," Jetfire agreed. "Let's muster up the others and get goin'."  
***

"Are ya crazy?" Ironhide roared. "Optimus ordered us ta stay here, d***it!"

I swallowed and shrunk back against Arcee's leg in fear, even though the black and silver Autobot was yelling at Jetfire and not me.

There were only five Autobots left in the base; Jetfire, Ironhide, Arcee, Ratchet, and of course Bumblebee. Bumblebee though wasn't quite ready for action, so we decided to let him and Ratchet stay in the medbay while the rest of us discussed what to do in the main room. But, naturally, Ironhide was being difficult.

"Now, that's interesting, mate," Jetfire remarked calmly. "I thought you'd jump at the opportunity ta scrap some Decepticons."

The weapons specialist growled loudly. "Ye just don't get it!" he yelled. "We can't leave the kid here ta go help Optimus! Ratchet's busy an' he don't have time ta babysit an organic!"

Arcee knelt down and scooped me up in her arms like a puppy or a little kid.

"Too right," Jetfire replied. "She said she's gonna come with us."

Great. Why'd he have to tell him THAT?

Ironhide turned his glare to me, his optics glowing with anger. "What're ya thinkin'!" he demanded.

I folded my arms and tried to look stubborn, even though I was being cradled like a baby. "What makes you think I would do as you tell me?" I asked him, my voice shaking slightly. "You're not my dad."

For a tense moment Ironhide and I just stared at eachother. But then the weapons specialist broke it off when he shut off his optics and folded his arms, sighing angrily.

"I ain't gonna argue with ya," he told me, opening his optics. "But I want ya ta listen ta me and stay here, d***it!"

"Hey, she can come if she wants to," Arcee growled. "Just because she's a girl doesn't mean she can't have the same opportunities."

Ironhide let out a grunt. "Fine," he said, waving his hand. "LET 'er come, see if I care. Don't blame me if ye get yerself hurt kid."

"Don't worry," I responded darkly. "I won't."

"So then we're all going?" Jetfire asked. No one said anything and I guessed he took it as a 'yes'. He smiled. "Alright! Off we go, then!"

"Just wait a moment," Arcee told him, slightly shifting me in her arms to where I sat in one arm and held onto her left shoulder. "I've got something for Ellie, and then we can go."

**Jetfire Dictionary help (in order of appearance) :  
**spunk: a good-looking purpose of either gender - Jetfire uses the word as a nick-name for Ellie  
blues: fights, mistakes  
bloke: an adult male  
piker: someone who doesn't want to fit in with others socially (describes Ironhide perfectly, huh?)  
sheila: a woman  
g'day: a greeting  
ankle-biter: young child  
reckon: You bet! Absolutely! Affirmative  
pozzy: position  
divvy van: Police vehicle used for transporting criminals. Named after the protective 'division' between the driver and the villains. Nick-name for Prowl, obviously.  
boomer: a large male kangaroo. Nick-name for Optimus because he's the leader of the Autobots  
offsider: an assistant, helper  
mongrel: despicable person  
too right: definitely  
muster: round up, like sheep or cattle  
mate: pal, friend, etc.

* * *

**Author Notes:**

First time I've actually done an author's note aside from what's on DeviantART. I'll just put up the original comments from forever ago...

Nye... Took a bit to write this up. Action coming up, I swear! And more history-revealing stuff about the Autobots and Ellie's father and all that stuff. Those of you who know who her dad is by the hints I've been dropping, keep it to yourself please; I kinda wanna keep it a surprise for those who haven't figured out yet.

And yes, she is thinking of Bulkhead though she doesn't know it.

Wingblast was pretty fun Autobot to come up with. I tried looking around for a Lazorbeak-like Autobot, but couldn't find one to use. Lo and behold, I decided to make up my own. Wingblast's also a femme... there aren't enough of those if ya ask me. I am thinking of having other femmes come later, but MUCH later.


	14. Dreams and Jedi

**Chapter 14**

_Why?_ I moaned mentally. _Why, why, WHY?_

I was currently sitting in the passenger seat of Ironhide's large alt-mode, and it was obvious that I wasn't enjoying it. I couldn't ride Arcee because the police or even the Decepticons could spot me, but I absolutely REFUSED to ride in Jetfire's jet mode; I had nothing against him at all, but I was still queasy about heights since Starscream had tried to kill me. To my dismay, the only other option was to let my Guardian, Ironhide, drive me. I still didn't know why he had wanted to be my Guardian – maybe it was because the Decepticons were drawn to me and he thought he could have more 'fun' that way. He really seemed to enjoy violence and stuff like that.

As uncomfortable as I was around Ironhide, I told myself to suck it up and bear with it. But it certainly didn't help that his holoform kept glancing at me as it pretended to drive.

_Okay, Ellie,_ I told myself, _just try to ignore him. He's not doing anything, so it shouldn't be so hard. Think about something else, like… what was Arcee doing with human clothing?_

Almost subconsciously, I looked down at myself. Arcee had given me a thick white jumpsuit which I was now wearing. The trimming around the wrists and ankles were red and the collar and a band around the waist were blue. On each shoulder was a red Autobot symbol and on the left side of my chest was a yellow 'D'.

_What does it stand for?_ I wondered. But I decided that didn't matter. It wasn't exactly that important.

The Autobots seemed to have been living near humans for a long time without notice, especially since they received their holoforms only recently. Besides Arcee owning the jumpsuit, there was no indication that the Autobots had known any humans.

Except, of course, for that time I heard Arcee, Bumblebee and Ironhide arguing in the weapons specialist's room. I remembered it sounded a lot like they were referring to my dad. Maybe that's what the 'D' on the jumpsuit stood for… my dad's name.

_No way_, I told myself, physically shaking my head. _Dad's always been away from Tranquility when he went away for the army. Besides, this suit's too small for him. He couldn't have met the Autobots._

"I ain't likin' this AT ALL," Ironhide suddenly stated, snapping me to reality.

"What?" I asked stupidly, turning to him.

I shrunk when the holoform shot me a glare and growled. "Are ya tellin' me ya don't see any danger in comin' along with us?" he demanded loudly.

"N-no, that's not what I meant," I said quickly. I sighed and put my hand on my head. "Sorry, I was just thinking, okay? A… a lot's been going on all at once." I sighed again, but it turned into a yawn.

"Ya need ta rest," Ironhide remarked automatically.

I turned my head to him again sharply. "What? No! I'm just getting bored!"

"Ya havn't been getting' the sleep ya need," he told me. "I know; Prowl said you were up late last night. He wouldn't tell me WHY, but I know you were awake. Now… do as I say an' get some rest!"

I gave him a pleading look. "But-"

"NOW!"

I jerked back, but after a minute of processing what had just happened, I decided he was right; I just didn't have the energy to argue with him. Crap.

I let out a breath in defeat. "Fine," I replied. "Just please wake me when we get close. I still want to help in any way I can."

I glanced at the holoform, hoping for a physical response rather than a vocal one. I only got half my wish when Ironhide grunted, but nodded.

I hesitated for a moment before unlatching my seatbelt and curling up onto the joined seats, being careful not to invade in the holoform's space, and finally closing my eyes.

_I found myself standing in the middle of a foreign neighborhood street. I wasn't worried though; nobody had bothered going through here for YEARS. The place was basically a huge dump. Everything, from the disemboweled buildings to the neglected street, had a brown rusted tinge to it. Nobody had cared to maintain anything._

_But I was still a bit nervous. I swallowed hard and held the strap of my red backpack tighter to my shoulder. I was going in. I had a deadline and I knew something bad was going to happen if I was late. It seemed even worse than being caught someplace where I wasn't supposed to be. I took a breath and stepped forward._

_As I went through the old neighborhood I took my steps carefully, not wanting to hurt myself on the different pieces of junk, such as car parts and broken glass, which was all scattered about the street. The place must've been looted a long time ago._

_I inwardly scowled. _It's not my job to speculate,_ I told myself mentally. _Gotta keep my concentration. I've got someplace to be.

_I continued on and eventually I came to something that was just out of place among all the junk and debris; a brand new, bright pink motorcycle. It was hard to miss, and I wondered if anybody would try to steal it. But what was even weirder was I thought I had recognized this specific bike from somewhere…_

_I shook my head. _Not my problem,_ I thought and I picked up the pace. But it was strange… I was almost CERTAIN that I had seen it from someplace before._

_Suddenly, I felt cold metal snake around my body and squeezed like I was in someone's fist, causing me to scream._

_"Aahh!" I cried. "Let me go! Let me go!" I managed to get my arms loose and tried to push myself free from the thing's grip, but it was to no avail. "Please!" I wailed. "Let me go!"_

_I began sweeping my gaze around, hoping – PRAYING – that someone or something was nearby to help me. I even looked back for the motorcycle, but it was gone._

_Instead, in its place lying on his side was a red mech. My face lit up hopefully. I was happy to see him; I knew he would help me!_

_But my joy soon dissolved. He was badly damaged. All over his body were burn marks, expose wires, and he was slowly leaking purple fluid. Lying by his head was what looked like some sort of giant scope, almost like from a microscope in the science lab at school. From wires that were strung out and still attached it to the mech, I assumed that it used to be mounted on his shoulder._

_Though he looked offline, I knew he was still alive. The wires that stuck out from his wounds were sparking, showing that life energy still surged through him._

_I said something, but no sound came out. I attempted to swallow the lump in my throat, failing, and tried again._

_"Perceptor!" I shouted to the mech. I didn't know how I knew his name, but I continued. "Perceptor, get up! Please, you're dying! Go find Ratchet – he'll fix you!" I could feel my worry grow when he didn't move._

_There was a low voice chuckling behind me, making me shiver. "It seems that your Autobot friend is out of commission," said the thing that was holding me. That voice… it wasn't familiar, but I knew that whoever it was I didn't like it at ALL._

_I gulped and gritted my teeth angrily. "Let me go," I demanded without looking back, my own voice slightly shaking. "Perceptor's my friend… I need to help him."_

_"Why?" the voice asked with a smirk. "Why help him and the Autobots when you could help me?"_

_I turned and glared at my captor, tears beginning to stream down from my eyes. "Because!" I growled, "You and your Decepti-tards KILLED my father! I hate you, Megatron! I HATE YOU!"_

_Megatron, a metal monster shrouded in shadow with his clawed hand holding me, narrowed his glowing blood-red optics and grinned, showing his razor-sharp dental-plating. He began to laugh, and every nerve in my body shook. He did so maniacally and with evil triumph, as if by torturing me he had won._

_I opened my mouth again and screamed:_

_"PERCY!"_

My eyes slowly slit open. I blinked away the sleep and realized I was still in Ironhide's cab. I closed my eyes and breathed in relief. It was only a dream.

_More like a nightmare,_ I mused. But at least it was over.

Slowly, as I had relaxed, I became aware that I wasn't exactly in the same position as I was when I fell asleep. My head was slightly elevated by something covered in the rough fabric of someone's jeans. A hand was gently stroking through my hair and down my back.

Cautiously, I pulled my head up and saw that I had been lying on the Ironhide holoform's lap.

My heart stopped. Crap.

I quickly sat up, moving back to my seat. I put my seatbelt on and clutched the shoulder strap, slightly shaking.

"S-sorry," I mumbled. "I-I don't know how that happened."

"S'okay," Ironhide sighed. "I don't mind."

I let out a breath and sheepishly nodded. "Thanks," I said quietly.

"No problem."

For a few minutes neither of us said anything. I didn't bother looking outside to see where we were; I just knew we would be there soon.

I decided I wanted to know how Ironhide made it so that I could use his holoform as a pillow. When I first found out about the holoforms and I tried to touch the projection of Arcee my hand went through it and the holo flickered like crazy.

"Hey, Ironhide…?"

"Pulsin' energy."

I blinked, startled by the statement. "What?"

"Pulsin' energy," the holoform repeated. "Ratchet took the research of an Autobot that's posted elsewhere from our base and worked on applying it to these holoforms for us. O'er the past few days he's been upgradin' them so tha' they give off a subtle pulsin' energy, makin' them tangible an' give off a warmth similar ta tha' of a human's. He's got Wheeljack workin' on a way ta make it so we can FEEL things with the holoforms."

I looked down. "Oh…"

I wondered who Wheeljack was. I assumed he was probably some kind of inventor if he was the one who originally did the research about holoforms. I wouldn't be surprised if his notes helped Ratchet and Jetfire with the conversion chip for my phone.

Suddenly, Ironhide's alt-mode stopped. I looked at his holoform in confusion as the truck simply shifted gears and turned off the engine.

"We're walkin' from here," the weapons specialist stated. "We can't go in vehicle mode or they'll be alerted by our engines."

I nodded. "Okay. And it'll get dark soon. That means less chance for humans to see you too, right?"

"Right," Ironhide replied, the holoform dissolving.

I took that as my cue to get out, so I unbuckled the seatbelt and did so. Behind me Ironhide unfolded into his full-sized Autobot form and crouched low next to me as a pink motorcycle and a large white and red jet approached from the direction we had come.

Arcee and Jetfire arrived and transformed, following Ironhide's example.

"Alright, mate," Jetfire whispered, "what's your plan?"

"We take out tha guard an' position ourselves around the warehouse," Ironhide told him. "On my signal we storm tha place. Hold yer fire, 'cause we don't wanna get Optimus an' the others in a crossfire. Only shoot when yer sure about it." He narrowed his optics slightly. "Now, yer sure it's only Blitzwing right now?"

"He's the only one we saw on Wingblast's camera," I said.

"An' Wingblast's tellin' me she took a fly around an' didn't see anyone else," Jetfire added.

The weapons specialist nodded. "Good," he remarked. "We won't be makin' any more noise than we need to. Ellie…" I looked at him. "Try an' stay outta tha crossfire. If ya get yerself hurt, I'M gonna be tha one responsible."

"Don't worry about me," I told him seriously. "Let's go trash some Decepticons!"  
***

As we pressed forward from the scrap yard to the warehouse and as I rode on Jetfire's shoulder I kept thinking about that dream I had. I was again walking home through the abandoned neighborhood, again seeing Arcee, and again getting caught by someone I was afraid of. What really weirded me out though was seeing the apparently non-existent Autobot, Perceptor, once again in a dream.

_How would I know if he didn't exist?_ I asked myself. _Maybe Optimus or somebody mentioned something about him and I'm just putting a name to a face._

But it was still strange. That dream was a Star Wars copyright infringement if I ever heard one. The whole 'aid the bad guys' and 'bad guy killed my father' was just plain weird. There's no way on Earth, or in the UNIVERSE considering the Autobots and Decepticons, that Megatron could have had anything to do with my dad's death… right?

Plus, the idea of Megatron ending up actually _being_ my dad like in Star Wars movies made me want to gag. I had never even seen the 'Con and it was just plain…. Ew – no. So glad that I knew better than that.

_Perceptor…_

In my dream… he was HURT. It bothered me a lot. I wanted to know WHY he was hurt. What happened that he was that torn up and knocked unconscious like that? Who could have done that to him?

_Stupid Decepticons,_ my mind grumbled. Even in my dreams they terrorized me.

"Almost there, spunk," Jetfire breathed quietly. "Once the 'Con's down, I'm gonna let you go and you need to find someplace to hide."

"Got it," I replied softly.

We moved forward and Jetfire crouched behind a nearby building. Ironhide and Arcee continued on, positioning themselves around the enterance of the warehouse, hidden from Blitzwing's view. I scanned the sky, but I couldn't see Wingblast anywhere; I knew though that she was watching us from someplace.

I settled myself in a seam of Jetfire's armor and held on as he made final adjustments to a large Gatling gun.

"Watch your head," he murmured, pulling down a cover plate like a medieval knight's helmet. "Once this thing starts goin' off blaster energy casings are gonna be flyin' all over."

I nodded and shrunk even closer against his shoulder plating. The scientist finally stopped working on the weapon and held it against his chest with both hands.

"Any klick now…" he whispered.

As he said that I heard Ironhide's voice…

"Get 'im!"

Neither the Decepticon nor I had time to react. It felt like I had left my stomach back behind the building when Jetfire shot up and bound over a car toward Blitzwing, who looked absolutely stunned, even with a visor on. From either side of him Ironhide and Arcee charged and grabbed him, Arcee slapping away his weapon.

"Ahh! Vat are you doing?" he shouted angrily in a thick German accent. "Don't touch me, you filthy Autobots!"

He was thrown roughly to the ground on his face with Ironhide on his back, trying to grab the Decepticon's hands while Arcee held his legs down. Jetfire stood in front of him with the large gun aimed at his head.

Blitzwing stopped struggling to glare at him. "You vill regret zis, traitor!" he growled.

"I haven't when I left the Decepticons," Jetfire told him sternly, "and I never will."

The Decepticon opened his mouth to say something else, but he suddenly stopped. I gulped quietly, realizing he was looking at me through his red visor. He smiled, showing sharp dental-plating, a small gap in the front.

"Ze girl!" he remarked with excitement. "You might be able to redeem yourself, traitor! I'm sure Lord Megatron vould allow you back if you give him ze tiny fleshy."

Jetfire growled. "Forget it, slag-for-circuits!" he said angrily. "Now shut up!"

"This'll shut 'im up," Ironhide stated, pulling out a pair of handcuffs – the same kind that had bound Arcee only days earlier.

With ease he snapped them onto the tan and purple Decepticon's wrists. I clung tighter to Jetfire as an electric wave seemed to visibly flow through Blitzwing and he yelled out, only to completely go limp with the glow from his visor gone, evidently showing his optics were offline.

I just stared with a lump in my throat. "Is he…?"

"Stasis cuffs," Jetfire stated, lowering his gun. "He's not offline, he's just in stasis lock. The cuffs send out a powerful overload of energy that knocks every system temporarily outta whack; courtesy of a famed Autobot inventor."

"You mean Wheeljack?" I blurted.

Jetfire turned his head to look at me, and I guessed that behind his battle mask he was confused. "Yes, the 'bot's name IS Wheeljack," he said slowly, "but how did you…?"

"Ironhide told me about him," I replied, pointing to the weapons specialist.

Jetfire looked at him. "No kiddin'," he said with slight amusement in his voice.

Ironhide just grumbled. He stood up from the ground, heaving the unconscious Blitzwing up along with him by the arm. "'Nuff talkin'!" He told us sternly. "We got a mission 'ere!"

**Cybertronian Dictionary help:**  
Klick- Minute

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Wee! The first taste of action! 8D More promised in the next chapter.

Tranquility, in this story, is in California and it's the town that Ellie and her friends live in.


	15. Not too comfy, is it?

**Chapter 15**

I dug into a short pile of junk and scrap, being extremely careful not to cut myself on any sharp objects. I was looking for something – ANYTHING – to protect myself from the Decepticons if they were to find me.

Before running into position around the warehouse with Arcee and Ironhide, Jetfire left me at the office-like building that he had been hiding behind earlier. He told me to hide myself and remain silent, because the Decepticons most likely wouldn't bother scanning for humans while a fight was going on between them and the Autobots.

But, personally, I wanted to be sure.

I grabbed a long, thin piece of pipe and pulled it from the pile, which had deflated and crumbled apart. "It's not much," I mumbled to myself, holding it in my hands and testing the grip, "but it'll do."

I clasped the pipe close and turned back to the building that I was meant to hide in. It wasn't exactly homey, and it looked like it could fall down at any moment. The door was gone, a ripped sheet hanging over the top of the old doorway and the large windows were gone except for tiny shards of glass on the sills. Jumping out of one for escape could prove dangerous. The place didn't look like it could protect me from anything really, but I didn't exactly have any other choice.

I hurried up the railed, concrete front steps and through the torn sheet, blinking madly when dirt flaked off it into my face.

"Ugh," I groaned quietly once I was inside. "Not too comfy, is it?"

The place was almost completely bare like everything that was still worth something had been moved out. But on the floor, and even on the walls and ceiling, were large faded burn marks like the ones found in a fireplace. On the ground were shattered bottles and charred remains of rags and other cloth-like materials. I was glad that the gangs had toned down since the past few years. I could hardly imagine sitting in my living room and having a motive cocktail crash through the window.

There was one thing in the room that was, for the most part, intact: an old boomerang-shaped receptionist's desk. Perfect to hide under in a lock-down – or, for my purposes, a Decepticon/Autobot battle.

With a sigh I trotted over behind the desk. Using my pipe I carefully swept out old bottles of liquor and other trash and shoved them to the side. They were by no means fresh, so it wasn't like someone was living there now. I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled inside, being a kid and being small enough to easily fit there, and leaned up against the back in a crouched position, holding my make-shift weapon close.

I began to settle, but my moving in had disturbed some finer particles of dirt and dust, making the air a little stuffy and hard to breath. I tried to use my collar on my jumpsuit as a mask, but it was too short so I resorted to burying half my head on the inside with the collar and zipper just below my eyes. Good thing I wasn't athsmatic, I suppose.

Time passed and sitting there, as the outside slowly grew darker, my mind began to wander to things like… Jetfire as a Decepticon. What the heck?

It seemed a bit much for my mind to handle. I just could hardly believe it. It was impossible to imagine him wearing one of those purple animal-like faced Decepticon symbols in place of the Autobot symbol on his chest. Well, I could see it but by the way he acted the image would never match. In my mind he was still smiling, still speaking kindly in his Australian accent and being nice and caring to everyone around him. He himself told me he didn't like to fight… he was more out for scientific discovery.

_But that doesn't matter,_ I told myself. _He's not a Decepticon now, and he says he doesn't regret becoming an Autobot_. But, I was glad he was an Autobot now. If he was still a Decepticon and then changed sides while I was there, I didn't think I would ever feel as comfortable around him as I did then.

Outside it was even darker. I knew it wouldn't be too long before the sun was completely gone for the night. The sky was already red and purple, showing through the window frames and reflecting off the old liquor bottles. I wasn't worried about the Autobots not being able to see – I knew they had some kind of night-vision tech for their optics or something – but I was worried about my mom and myself. Naturally, humans couldn't see in the dark, so what were we supposed to do if we were being chased by a Decepticon?

I sighed. Mom. I hoped she was okay. I didn't know what I would do if something were to ever happen to her.

When Dad died I was completely stunned. For months I had nightmares about being on the military base with the radiation warning signs and everything blaring. I always ran into the room, seeing my dad standing next to a large radiation generator. Everyone was running, trying to escape, but I would always try and go toward him. He would just stand there…not doing anything.

I tried my best to reach him, but going against the flow of people was hard. In desperation I would call out his name. He would simply turn his red head to look at me, but did nothing else.

The radiation levels soared and I would reach for him, screaming. But then the reactor would blow, sending out a bright white wave of energy that would engulf his body and then would be heading for me. Once it hit and the people around me all yelled at once in pain, I woke up.

I had later come to realize that sometimes before I woke up I would be murmuring for my dad. It made Mom sad when she found me like that, and I wished that I would learn not to talk in my sleep.

"Oh, shut up you sharp-toothed piece of scrap – I'm looking!"

I instantly froze. There was a voice; someone was coming.

There was a snarling sound and the high-pitched voice that I had just heard said, "Now I agree with ya there; what DOES Megatron want this kid for?" I gulped. They were talking about me. "She's only a human sparkling. Besides, he's already got her parental unit, so what more could she possibly give him?"

The other being snarled again and purred mechanically.

"Maybe you're right," the voice replied. "She HAS gone quiet after our THOUROUGH techniques, but I still don't like this retrieval mission he's got us on. How do we even know if the girl's around here? Is it just because Megatron said so?"

The second being growled.

These two had to be Megatron's men. I didn't know how big they were because I didn't hear the usual giant footsteps for some reason.

_Do all Decepticons talk about him like this behind his back?_ I absent-mindedly wondered. I knew the Autobots don't talk about Optimus that way – I physically swallowed an incredibly uncomfortable lump in my throat – I did though.

Suddenly, one of the Decepticons hissed and I could hear mechanical sniffing.

"You pick up something, Ravage?" his companion asked. "What is it? Come on; don't leave your buddy Frenzy hanging!"

The Decepticon Ravage snarled and continued sniffing. I shuddered. It was getting CLOSER!

"In the building?" Frenzy inquired. He cackled. "Well, let's look into it, shall we?"

_Crap!_ was all that went through my mind. _CrapcrapcrapcrapcrapCRAP!_ They found me. Oh, G**, they found me.

There was scraping as the Decepticons went up the concrete steps and came into the room. One of them kicked a bottle out of their way and I could hear it slide across the floor.

_%*&!_ I was about to freak out. My mind was racing. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?

_Dangit, Ellie!_ my mind yelled. _ATTACK!_

Before I knew what I was doing I shot out of my hidey hole, grabbed a bottle with my right hand while still holding onto my pipe with my left, and jumped to my feet, slinging the bottle over my head preparing to throw it to the two Decepticons that were present.

The two Decepticons, a black and silver one-eyed, panther-like mech with a gun mounted on its hindquarters and a six-foot red and orange mech with a machine gun for a right hand, stared at me obviously surprised.

But then the red one smiled. "There she is!" he squealed excitedly.

I swung my arm, releasing the bottle and throwing it at Frenzy as hard as I could. I was surprised when it hit the Decepticon square in the face, shattering instantly. He stepped back and leaned away, his hand now beginning to claw at his face. He was screaming at an almost ear-piercing frequency.

"Ahhh! Stupid glitch!" he shrieked. "My optics! I can't see! Ravage; help meeeee!"

I involuntarily squeaked when the feline Decepticon turned its head to me, its single red optic behind a slit in its helmet glowing brightly. I scowled, growling back, and brought my pipe up over my shoulder in both hands like a baseball bat. Ravage responded by snarling. He lowered his head and the silver blaster on his hip swiviled and aimed at me.

My eyes widened. "Oh, sh-!"

I dropped to the ground as the air immediately erupted and vibrated at the sounds of an automatic rifle firing off repeatedly, whizzing and clanging as the bullets soared through the air and hit the metal desk protecting me. I had to get out of there, I knew that much, but I was pinned. What could I…?

I noticed a door that was directly behind the desk where I was. That was my way out and if I was lucky, there was a back door to this place.

Snatching up another brown bottle, I began to crawl on all fours as fast as I could into the next room.

_Oh man, oh man, oh man!_ my mind kept going as the gunfire continued to go off behind me. _What am I gonna do? I don't stand a chance alone against these guys!_ I struggled to focus on leaving the room, but it was a little difficult with my brain rattling and buzzing inside my head.

"Ravage!" I heard Frenzy shriek. "Forget the girl and help me out here! D*** insect made it so I can't see!"

The weapon's fire ceased and Ravage growled in response to his cohort. Without thinking, I shot back to my feet and ran across the room, turning left to go through the next door.

"Wait, Ravage; where are you going?" Frenzy suddenly demanded loudly enough for me to hear.

"Eep!" I squeaked and made myself go faster.

I ran down a hallway with broken ceiling lights and doors on each side. In the other room Ravage's metal claws scraped against the ground as he came after me, snarling threateningly. I squealed and tried to speed up, even though I couldn't.

At the end of the hall was a heavy metal door with a green 'EXIT' sign above it. Man, I thought I would never find it. Grinning slightly, I shot through the door. I ran around to its other side and, dropping my weapons, I tried to push it closed. The door moved so slowly that for a terrifying moment I thought it wasn't moving at all. I could hear Ravage approaching and I nearly panicked.

"Rrgh! Close, dangit!" I growled. "Close!"

The door was a few inches to being completely shut and I caught a glance of Ravage's red Cyclops optic. He roared and leapt forward just as the door finally clacked shut. I jumped back screaming before a loud clanging sound erupted from the other side of the barrier, telling me that the Decepticon had evidently crashed.

For a moment I just stood there stupidly, my brain turning to register what had happened. Finally, though, I let out a sigh of temporary relief. I bent over to retrieve my weapons, weakly giggling at my luck.

_Keep going,_ I told myself. _It won't be long at all until they find another way out._

I turned and walked alongside the building. I didn't run because I was already worn out; I was not used to running for my life from something that could quite easily rip me to shreds. I was always at the bottom of my class in gym back at school.

_Man,_ I thought, _if this is gonna be a reoccurring thing I need to get in better shape._

A loud, mechanical bird's shriek snapped me back to reality and I whirled around fearing the worst, but then sighed in relief. Even though it was dark and I couldn't exactly see the bird-like shape swooping toward me, I was sure that it was Wingblast.

I laughed at my paranoia. "Holy crap," I giggled, still smiling. "Boy, Wingblast, am I glad to see you." The silhouette neared the ground and finally landed, folding its wings against its body. "Listen, I ran into Ravage and Frenzy, so I'm wondering if…"

My voice trailed off when I took another look at the Cybertronian. After a moment of realization, my eyes widened; Wingblast didn't have red optics.

"Crap…"

The Cassette stepped closer to me, allowing me to finally see its armor color of black with red trimming, and most of all their alignment: Decepticon. It kept its head held up high and spread its mechanical wings, making it look more intimidating. It narrowed its optics and opened its razor-sharp beak, letting out an ear-piercing screech. I began to scream so loud that my throat instantly hurt.

Without even thinking I threw the bottle I held toward the Decepticon. It shattered over the Decepticon symbol on its chest and the bird shrieked angrily, staggering back and shaking off the glass pieces.

I took off in the opposite direction in what I knew, in the back of my mind, would probably be a futile attempt at escape. I was doomed. My head was again filled with the word 'crap' and phrases that went along with 'I'm gonna die.' I really did feel like I was going to die.

I ran around the corner of the office building, closer to the warehouse, but then I immediately froze in my tracks. I stood there stiff, my mouth slightly hung open with no sound coming out.

In front of me stood two figures; the fading light now only barely reflecting off their armor showing one with red armor and the other with black armor. Ravage glared at me, hunched over, with his single red optic. Frenzy still had two optics; but now – no doubt from my doing – only one was functional, glowing dark red with incredible anger.

He snickered softly. "Ya ain't going anywhere, insect!" he hissed.

Behind me, the Decepticon Cassette that was chasing me had landed. I stole a glance back to see him raise his head and caw triumphantly. My jig was up.

All of a sudden, something came and struck the bird to the ground with a loud shriek, like a battle cry. There was a loud, disturbing crunch of metal and Frenzy, Ravage, and I all jumped back in surprise as we watched the battle that was now before us unfold.

"Lazorbeak!" Frenzy shouted in a cheering tone. "Slag that Autobot glitch!"

I gasped, realizing now what hit the red and black Decepticon; it was Wingblast.

Lazorbeak stood up on his raptor-like legs, roughly shoving off the blue and silver Autobot. Wingblast quickly gained her footing and chattered angrily at him. She flapped her wings threateningly and her gold optics glowed brightly, making me actually feel scared. Why were robots so good at glaring?

But then she briefly turned her head to me and chirped out a command which I didn't need any sort of translation to understand: "RUN".

Unfortunately for me, Frenzy understood as well.

I turned to escape the only way out, which was toward the warehouse, but he reached out with his claw-like hand to grab at me by the arm.

"Oh no you don't, meatbag!" he snarled.

But I was able to duck from his grasp and I took my pipe in both hands, spinning back toward him and swinging hard. The pipe collided with Frenzy's neck, simply because I was too short to reach all the way to his head, in a loud gut-wrenching "CLANG!". But all it did was cause him to stagger. I gawked in utter fear.

It took about half a second to get myself to release my weapon and bolt. I ran as hard as I could toward the warehouse, my legs going higher to make me go faster. Behind me, Ravage roared and I knew what was going to happen next...

I squealed when the shots rang out behind me. I reached up to cover my head with my right hand. My left arm felt vaguely like it was burning – I had probably over-extended it when I swung at Frenzy. I ran and dove behind an old rusted car, falling into the dirt with a loud "Oof!"

Groaning, I pushed myself up and sat against the passenger door of the car. The landing must've been harder than I thought… my whole left side was beginning to ache.

_I can't just sit here,_ I told myself. _I have to find one of the Autobots. I need help!_

But I didn't want to move. I just wanted to sit and relax. I was beginning to feel a little tired.

Another barrage of bullets sent me back to my feet and running again, crouched in hopes Ravage and Frenzy wouldn't see me. I ran toward the right of the building toward the back end of the warehouse. The place I was in right then could have been an old car dealership; I had to duck and weave between the cars and trucks somewhat neatly rowed, stepping on price stickers and tags. I glanced and saw the sign with the dealership's name: "Bolivia's Finest Quality Used Cars and Petting Zoo". I wondered where the petting zoo was supposed to be.

But I did remember something; this was where Mom told me she got her first car. She told me the story: she was sixteen. She raised a portion of the money and got good grades while her parents paid for the rest. She said when I was sixteen she would never let meset foot in this place – she hated her first car.

_Ironic that we both end up coming here anyway,_ I thought.

For the first time I began to notice the sounds of battle coming from inside the nearby warehouse. There was loud blaster fire, light clinging of energy casings hitting the ground, and the yells and grunts of troops from both sides. I winced whenever I heard a voice that I labeled as familiar.

I became worried. What if the Autobots were losing? What if disobeying Optimus and coming here with the other Autobots only added up to a greater loss in battle? What if…

My eyes widened at the thought.

What if Mom's killed? I strained to listen, but I never heard her.

_Crap, I have to find her!_

Instead of going past the warehouse like I was originally planning to, I began heading toward it, keeping my head low between the cars. I still didn't want Ravage and Frenzy to see me.

The terrible twosome were sweeping around the end of the dealership with their guns, seeing if I would cry out in pain should they hit me. I doubted that was what Megatron had in his processor when he ordered them to come after me.

"Wait, Ravage," I barely overheard Frenzy say after the gunfire ceased. "Look at this."

I froze mid-step. They couldn't have caught sight of me, could they?

Ravage made a sniffing sound and then growled to his companion softly.

"Is THAT what it is?" Frenzy asked. He then cackled, giving me a shiver. "Heh, maybe we won't hafta totally scrap her! This trail will lead us right to her! Ha! – you're aim's gettin' better, Ravage."

I blinked. Aim? What did he mean by 'aim'?

I remembered the buring sensation in my left arm. Slowly, and hesitantly, I looked down at it. I instantly let out a gasp and quickly covered my mouth with my right hand.

I was hit.

* * *

**Author's original notes:**

1-15-10

I certainly did promise more action, didn't I? X3  
And there's a cliffhanger as well!  
Yes, I know, I'm sorry - I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can, okay? For now, enjoy! :D


	16. Die, fleshy!

**Chapter 16**

_~WARNING: Violence, brief description of gore, scary stuff. Certainly not for the squeemish. This is me *personally* telling you what to expect.~_

_-Kiyoshi Hebi 4·23·10_  
-

I was hit.

My arm was a horrible, bloody MESS. Red liquid was everywhere, though it looked like I was only hit in the upper arm. My puffy jumpsuit took most of the shots and was shredded to where my bare arm showed, surrounding the wound.

_No_, I thought. _No, no, no, no! Oh, this is bad. This is very, very, VERY bad._

Ratchet was a good medic and all, but I would need HUMAN medical assistance for this kind of thing; it was just too delicate of work for an Autobot to attempt at. Curse me! Curse me for getting into these kind of things! I had to take care of it or I could end up passing out or something.

But not now. Right now I had to get away from Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and hopefully find an Autobot…or my mom.

I clutched my arm, shaking slightly from nausea and biting my lip to keep from screaming at the surge of pain, and slowly got back to my feet. I didn't bother to stay hidden below the different cars and vehicles; Ravage and Frenzy would most likely be paying too much attention to my blood trail to look up unless given a reason. I hoped a reason didn't present itself.

Oh man, what was I thinking? I knew very well that I could get hurt here, but I still came anyway. I didn't have a plan if the Decepticons had found me. I hadn't thought about ANYTHING really – just about how pitiful my life was.

I neared the edge of the dealership, which meant I had nowhere else to hide. There was a whole ten or fifteen feet to the warehouse wall, where there stood a dumpster and a cardboard box with what looked like a huge sheet that in surprisingly good condition. Perfect! I needed to stop my bleeding but still be able to use my good hand.

I bolted from behind a blue, rusted little 1976 Toyota and almost practically pounced on the sheet. I sat against the dumpster and took the sheet, one corner in my hand and the other in my mouth, and started ripping it. It tasted a lot like dust and something else that I didn't want to think about, but I ignored it as I finished separating the strip from the main body.

Then, with only one hand and holding one end in my mouth I quickly began to tightly wrap it around my arm. It was a good thing I had something in my mouth because there were plenty of short spasms of pain that would have caused me to cry out and draw Frenzy and Ravage even closer.

Breathing heavily through my nose I finished wrapping the arm and tying it off, sending one last jolt of pain for me to deal with. I dropped the sheet from my teeth and collapsed against the dumpster, panting heavily. Nothing like incredible pain to wear a kid out.

There was a loud blast from the other side of the concrete wall of the warehouse and I screamed, bringing my legs up into a ball as a large dent jut out of it, sprinkling debris.

"Ellie?" asked Sideswipe's bewildered voice, muffled from the obstical of the wall.

My mood instantly brightened and I smiled like a Muppet, preparing to say something.

"There she is, Ravage!" Frenzy suddenly yelled. I turned and saw him standing over a car in the center of the dealership, pointing in my direction with his gun hand. "Get her!"

D***. They heard me when I screamed.

The lion-sized mechanical panther leapt on top of a tan Pathfinder, growling loudly. My guts felt like they disappeared when he began to bound toward me and I screamed again, trying to somehow meld into the dumpster behind me.

"Ellie!" Sideswipe bellowed. "Hold on, I'm coming!"

I jerked when the dented wall began to sound like a giant was trying to punch a hole through it, cement cracking and flaking and spitting out powdered debris. Sideswipe was attempting to break straight through it.

Ravage leapt over the Toyota and landed in the dirt-covered asphalt and roared again. He began to gallop toward me, snarling loudly and claws clanging loudly as they attempted to dig into the ground.

_#$%. Nice way to die,_ I thought to myself. _A giant robotic HOUSECAT is going to rip me apart while my "Prince Charming" tries to break through a concrete wall five feet from me. Dad… I hate my life… so much right now._

I covered my eyes and braced myself for impact. I heard the wall break and there was a loud slam and crash of metal, heavy panting and angry growling. I began to tremble when I didn't feel anything tear at me, and I was afraid to see why.

"Aaarg!" Sideswipe roared. "Stay the slag away from her you –" I then heard him begin to rattle out a long list of Cybertronian words that I really didn't want to know the translation of.

I got enough courage to slowly bring my arm down to see what was happening. I jumped and screamed when Ravage swung by me, latched onto Sideswipe's right arm. The Autobot was swinging around in a circle to try and get him to let go. I ungracefully began sliding sideways to get on the other side of the dumpster, away from the battle.

Sideswipe finally slammed his arm into the wall, causing Ravage to finally release him and be flung back, landing on his side and temporarily struggling to get back on his feet.

"Die, fleshy!"

Frenzy was sprinting toward me, his claws out-stretched to grab me and quite possibly slice something that would case me to bleed out.

My eyes were as wide as saucers. "Ah-Aaaah!" I screamed. I started scooting back as fast as I could. Whenever my hand hit something it would be flung at the Decepticon, who was cackling loudly. "Sideswipe!" I cried at the top of my lungs.

"Stay away from her, D***it!"

Sideswipe dove forward toward me and Frenzy, causing the both of us to shriek. The red Autobot swept up Frenzy in his fist and immediately threw him over his shoulder clear to the other side of the old car dealership. There was a crash and a loud yell of pain from the Decepticon. Sideswipe looked at me.

"You okay?"

"Sideswipe – behind you!"

Ravage leapt and my friend turned around just in time to catch the cat before it could get to his throat. He stumbled around, trying to keep Ravage from clawing at him and accessing the apparently vital wires on his neck.

I just watched with my mouth soundlessly wide open. If Ravage bit anything important it could instantly kill Sideswipe! No, no, no, I didn't want that. I'd do anything to help him if I could. Dangit… sometimes I wished I was an Autobot too.

Sideswipe finally shifted his grasp and then had his hand around the Decepticon's neck. He pried Ravage away from his neck and held him out at arms length.

"I'm gonna tell you once," Sideswipe growled menacingly, dental plating bared, "don't you DARE touch her you slagging mutt!"

I stared as my friend flung his arm to the side, throwing the snarling Decepticon from us and hitting the Pathfinder. Ravage landed with a loud "Thud!" and the windows of the vehicle instantly shattered, leaving a dented top.

Without waiting for either of the Cassettes to retaliate, Sideswipe quickly folded into his alt-mode with a mechanical whir and sped right to my side. The passenger-side door rose open waiting for me to enter.

"Get in!" he urged.

I nodded stiffly and started to get up. I reached over to the dumpster with my right hand and used it as support while I stood, doing so slowly afraid to make a wrong move to hurt my arm further.

I was about to surrender all my weight to my legs when my hand suddenly slipped, slamming me sideways into the dumpster on my bad arm. I instantly yelped in pain and slid down again, cradling the arm.

"What's wrong?" Sideswipe demanded, but with concern.

"It's my arm," I squeaked, trying to keep from crying. "Ravage landed a slug in me or something and it hurts like HECK!"

"D***it, I shoulda KILLED him!"

I didn't respond and tried to stand again. I suddenly gasped when I felt someone grab my shoulder. They began to pull me to my feet and I instantly tried to squirm away.

"Stop it!" Sideswipe ordered. "I'm getting you inside myself!"

I looked and saw that it was actually his holoform that had grabbed me. He reached around my legs and held onto my back as he stood up, taking me with him. The holoform was emotionless and it flickered a lot, but then he DID have more to deal with than trying to make the hologram look real.

Quickly, but carefully, I was set in the black leather seat and the belt slithered and strapped itself on me securely as the holoform flickered off. The door shushed closed while Sideswipe revved his engine, eager to leave.

We took off from the warehouse, leaving behind two Decepticon Cassettes that I hoped I wouldn't be seeing anytime soon. As we left the dealership, and as my head slightly throbbed, I was barely able to notice that we were heading in the general direction of the scrap yard. It was too dark to see too much, so I didn't bother. I was feeling like crap anyway.

Oh man, my whole arm was screaming in pain. I was shivering. Was it really that cold? If so, why was I sweating so badly? And where on earth did all the oxygen go? I was breathing like I was breathing through a straw!

"Ellie, you've changed colors," Sideswipe pointed out with concern. "Is that normal?"

"W-wha?" I asked. I was going to asked what color I was, but I was afraid to puke.

"You're almost white!" Sideswipe responded.

What? No, this isn't right!

"I'm taking you straight to Ratchet!" my friend announced. "He-he'll know what to do… I hope…"

I groaned and held my arm. I felt so tired… I wanted to sleep. I leaned over and slumped against the door. I barely noticed the seatbelt tightening slightly, almost as if it was a reassuring squeeze.

"Hang on, Ellie," Sideswipe told me. "We'll get you help, just hang on!"

"Sideswipe…" I mumbled.

"Ellie! Aw, fraggit!"

"Mom…" Mom, I want to go to bed. I'm tired.

"She's not here," Sideswipe immediately said. "We're almost out of this. I'll take care of you."

I thought I heard a loud explosion above us, but I wasn't sure. I suddenly felt the Lamborghini around me lurch to a stop and I didn't even have feeling enough to reach out for support. The ground beneath us shook and Sideswipe grunted, almost with pain. Out the front I saw what looked like a pair of legs from a giant person, or a robot.

"Where do you think you're going?" a loud, annoyingly high-pitched voice asked menacingly. "I'm not done with you yet, Autobot!"

"Shut up, Starscream," I moaned quietly. "It's past my bed time, I need to get home."

"Ellie!" Sideswipe hissed. "Be quiet!"

His alt-mode suddenly shook and I felt the front of the car begin to lift off the ground.

"Hah! You have the girl!" Starscream announced. "Give her up, if you want to leave you with *minimal* damage!"

"Not a chance, glitch!" Sideswipe spat.

The Decepticon growled and dropped us back onto the ground. I weakly jumped when a black foot with jet thrusters for heels stomped on the hood of the car and Sideswipe yelled in pain.

"Sides…?" I whispered. "Sides, are you okay?"

"Ellie," Sideswipe replied, "run."

I weakly blinked. "Wha…?"

"Slaggit, RUN!"

The seatbelt whipped off from around me and the door opened with a speed that I'm sure would break a normal car door's hinges. The black seat beneath me tilted and I ungracefully tumbled out onto the cold dirt. I tried my best to cradle my arm against myself as I did and attempted to roll myself so I didn't land on it.

"Oh, no you don't fleshy!" Starscream roared.

Crap, no. I had to go.

Stumbling I tried to get to my feet as fast as I could and started to run. I didn't know where, I didn't know why, but I knew something really bad was going to happen if I didn't run. However, I wasn't getting too far in the dark and I kept losing my balance when my foot hit something. It was like running in a black void; you didn't know where you were going, whether it was better or worse than what was behind you, and there were unseen obstacles that seemed to be there solely to slow down your progress or lack of.

"I almost killed you last time, girl," Starscream hissed menacingly behind me. I didn't know where he was, and I didn't want to find out. "But my traitorous 'friend' just HAD to choose that time to join his filthy Autobot friends on this backwater planet. It disgusts me."

My foot caught something and I finally tripped, landing in the dirt with a scraping sound. My head was swimming so much, I didn't want to move. I would have been happy if I could have just lay there for the rest of my life.

I gasped when the ground beneath me shook, and I slowly tried push myself up again.

"But I'll admit," Starscream continued, "it was fortunate that you were not killed, my dear. I would've had to pay dearly at the hands of our so-called 'Mighty' Megatron if you had been prematurely terminated."

I remembered why I was running; it was to get away from this guy. But I was still wondering who Megatron was. Did I owe him money or something? No, that wasn't it. What was it…?

"But now I understand," the Decepticon went on. I could feel his intake valves breathing on me, so he was closer. "I understand why Megatron wanted you alive. I *know* what he could gain from you… what I *will* gain from you!"

"Oh, PIT no!"

The ground shook again and I got enough sense back to turn my head to see what was going on behind me. I saw Starscream crouched over me, casting a particularly dark shadow. Something was coming up behind him very quickly and my head hurt too much to make any sense of what it could be.

The red thing grabbed the Decepticon by the head and pulled him away from me. The red thing was Sideswipe. He practically threw Starscream over his shoulder with a loud roar, the Decepticon easily lifting into the air and landing with a loud "Wump!" on his back, dirt and debris exploding around him.

My friend then briefly turned to me. I couldn't see his face, but his optics were glowing furiously.

* * *

**Author's original notes:**

4-23-10

Summary:  
Ellie discovers that she is wounded and immediately decides that it needed to be properly treated. Upon finding a sheet to wrap her arm and doing so she she screams at the sound of battle coming from the other side of the nearby warehouse wall. Frenzy and Ravage discover her and prepare to attack. Sideswipe breaks through the warehouse wall and saves her. He then prepares to take her away from the battle when they are suddenly stopped by a mystery Robot.

Yes, another cliffhanger, I know. Sorry if you don't like them.

I'm working on the next one, so hopefully you guys won't have to wait too long for the next one.


	17. Oh, PIT No!

Transformers Chapter 17

"Where do you think you're going?" a loud, annoyingly shrill voice asked menacingly. "I'm not done with you yet, Autobot!"

"Shut up, Starscream," I moaned quietly. "It's past my bed time, I need to get home." I was just so tired; my bed sounded really good right then.

"Ellie!" Sideswipe hissed. "Be quiet!"

His alt-mode suddenly shook as if someone had grabbed him and I felt the front of the car begin to lift off the ground.

"Hah! You have the girl!" Starscream announced. "Give her up, if you want me to leave you with *minimal* damage!" I could see the jet's face through the windshield, thanks to his brightly-glowing red optics that totally illuminated his face. He was looking at me with a smirk. I just stuck my tongue out.

"Not a chance, glitch!" Sideswipe spat.

The Decepticon growled and dropped us back onto the ground. I weakly jumped when something slammed on the hood of the car and Sideswipe yelled in pain; the object looked a whole lot like a large black boot.

"Sides…?" I whispered, leaning toward the radio."Sides, are you okay?"

"Ellie…" Sideswipe groaned, "…run."

I blinked weakly. "Wha…?"

"Slaggit, RUN!"

The seatbelt whipped off from around me and the door opened with a speed that I'm sure would break any normal car door's hinges. The passenger's seat tilted and I ungracefully tumbled out onto the cold dirt. I tried to cradle my arm against myself as I did and attempted to roll myself so I didn't land on it as I fell.

"Oh, no you don't fleshy!" Starscream roared.

Crap, no.

Stumbling, I tried to get to my feet as fast as I could and started to run. I didn't know where, I didn't know why, but I knew something really bad was going to happen if I didn't run. That's all I bothered to process – my head hurt and I was having a hard time concentrating.

However, I wasn't getting too far in the dark and I kept losing my balance when my foot hit something. It was like running in a black void; I didn't know where I was going, whether it was better or worse than what was behind me, and there were unseen obstacles that seemed to be there solely to slow down my progress… or lack there-of.

"I almost killed you last time, girl," Starscream hissed menacingly somewhere behind me. I didn't know where he was, and I didn't want to find out. "But my traitorous 'friend' just HAD to choose that time to join his filthy Autobot friends on this rotten backwater planet – to save a pitiful, insignificant tiny little human girl like you! It disgusts me!"

My foot caught something and I finally tripped, landing in the dirt with a loud scraping sound. My head was swimming so much, I didn't want to move. I would have been happy if I could have just lay there for the rest of my life.

I gasped when the ground beneath me shook, and I slowly tried push myself up again.

"But I'll admit," Starscream continued, "it was fortunate that you were not killed, my dear. I would've had to pay dearly at the hands of our so-called 'Mighty' Megatron if you had been prematurely terminated."

I remembered why I was running; it was to get away from this guy. But I was still wondering who Megatron was. Did I owe him money or something? No, that wasn't it. What was it…? Ow, my head just wouldn't stop hurting! I was having trouble remembering things, I knew, so I only tried to focus on one thing: getting out of there.

"But now I understand," the Decepticon went on. I could feel his intake valves breathing on me, so he was closer. "I understand why Megatron wanted you alive. I _know_ what he could gain from you… what I _will _gain from you!"

"Oh, PIT no!"

The ground shook again and I got enough sense back to turn my head to see what was going on behind me. I saw Starscream crouched over me, casting a particularly dark shadow while something was coming up behind him very quickly and my head hurt too much to make any sense of what it could be. My vision was really blurry… I couldn't focus well at all.

The red thing grabbed the Decepticon by the head and pulled him away from me. It had to be Sideswipe, I thought. He practically threw Starscream over his shoulder with a loud roar, the Decepticon easily lifting into the air and landing with a loud **"Wump!"** on his back, dirt and debris exploding around him and bouncing off of Sideswipe; he blocked everything that came my way so nothing ever hit me except maybe some dust.

My friend then briefly turned to me. I couldn't see his face, but his optics were glowing furiously.

"Ellie," he panted, "**RUN**! Run, get out of here!"

"But…"

"Just go!" he yelled. "I'll hold off Screamer, just get out of here as fast as you can!"

Starscream started to sit up so I got back to my feet and turned around. I wasn't really running… just fast-walking and staggering away; painfully, I might add. Man, I felt awful. It was freezing outside and I was still sweating like a donkey. I could have sworn my hands shook, even while I hugged myself. The pain in my arm was so intense that it had turned to a numbing throb. I could barely feel it anymore.

Behind me, the battle raged. There were sickening crashes, gut-twisting blasts and head-throbbing crunches of metal. I didn't want to look back; I didn't want to see who was winning, for fear it might be Starscream.

My foot caught again, but when I tried to stop myself and regain my balance I ended up falling to my side again, yelling. I groaned when pain rippled through me. I hurt so much and I started to cry. I wanted to go home.

I turned back to see Sideswipe and Starscream. They didn't seem any farther away. Was I walking on a conveyer belt going backwards without knowing it?

The two robots were engaged in fight with hand-to-hand combat. Sideswipe punched, Starscream blocked and retaliated only to have the Autobot prevent contact in the same way. They kept doing it over and over: kick, block, punch, dodge, jab, shove, on and on… Was it ever going to stop?

After a few rounds of attacks and dodges, Starscream finally seemed to decide that it was time to end it. He grabbed Sideswipe by each arm, preventing them from moving against him, and he gave a powerful ramming kick to his opponents 'stomach'. I saw Sideswipe's optics seem to widen and he let out a **"Guh!"** sound. Starscream released him and allowed him to fall into the pile of trash behind him.

The Decepticon then turned his dark red optics over to me. I watched him turn and begin to come toward me, the ground rumbling with each step he took.

"Oh, slag…" I murmured. Slag. Heh… that's a funny word to use. I guess my friends are starting to rub off on me.

Starscream stopped over me and reached down. He dug his claws underneath me, taking up a whole lot of dirt as well, and closed them around my hips and legs which kept me from moving. I weakly tried to crawl away with only my right hand, but I really felt spent.

"You're NOT getting away from me again, meatbag!" the Decepticon growled, lifting me and turning me to look into his red optics.

My head hurt… did he really have to be so loud?

"Listen…" I moaned, loudly enough for him to hear, "let Sideswipe go. Let us both go. Please…"

"I will most certainly NOT!" Starscream hissed. "I have waited too long for the perfect chance to go against Megatron only to have you and your Autobot friends scrapping everything up!" I saw the shadow of his mouth smile, and it gave me shivers. I didn't like it. "I understand now," he chuckled. "I've finally figured it out… I had been wondering why Megatron would want two seemingly insignificant humans alive. He never bothered to inform me because of his distrust in me; good for him."

I tried to squirm from his grasp, but stopped after a couple seconds from exhaustion. I coughed and leaned forward with my head down.

"I have to warn you… I feel like crap," I told the tan Decepticon. "I feel like I'm about to throw up. Don't blame me if any of it gets on you."

"If you _dare_ regurgitate anything onto my armor, I will personally send you to your sun!" Starscream roared. "It would be a shame… you can't leave just yet, human." I gasped and wimpered when I felt something lightly patting on my head; it was the Decepticon's hand. It sort of felt like he was making fun of me. "I'm only now just coming to the best part of my story. Your male parental unit – what you humans call a 'father' – his name is Daniel Witwicky, is it not?"

I felt the sweat on me freeze like ice. That WAS Dad's name. How in the heck did he know my dad's name?

I looked up at the evil Cybertronian expectantly, and I saw him smirk. "Heh, heh… good to see you finally pay attention," he remarked. "Wearing the boy's old Autobot apparel, hm?"

I coughed again and glared. "How… how do you know about… Dad?" I asked as darkly as I could, panting between words to try and keep from throwing up.

The Decepticon's smile disappeared and he changed his look to a scowl of hatred. "That boy has caused us a lot of problems, even as a child," he told me. "He worked alongside the Autobots with his father until he disappeared from our sight for a time." He looked me over. "I see now it was to find a mate – humans are disgusting!"

I rolled my eyes. "Shuddup and get to the point!" I growled impatiently. I groaned; dang, my head hurt. "What do you want from me?"

Starscream chuckled. "Quite a feisty one, aren't you?" he inquired. "Almost worth being kept as a pet, were it not for your considerable importance to my cause."

I wanted to snap at him again. I was really getting tired of hearing him talk. I thought bad-guys only did that in movies, but I guess they do that in real life too; it was annoying.

"Your father had hidden a very important Cybertronian artifact from us," the Decepticon continued. "Megatron assembled an assault on the island known as Autobot City, located somewhere in your Pacific Ocean, to find this artifact. Needless to say, the Autobots weren't too pleased and attempted to stop us. Before I knew it, Megatron ordered us to retreat. If you haven't figured out what happened yet, I'll tell you: the boy was killed in the crossfire."

"What?" My voice snapped unusually loud and all of a sudden my head felt incredibly clear. My dad… he had been dead for three years. All that time I thought it was some sort of accident. "So you _killed_ him?" I demanded of the Decepticon.

"Not I," he told me calmly. "Megatron."

"Big frikkin' difference!" I roared. "You Decepticons are all horrible slaggheads that-that could just do the world a favor and die! Do you know what I've had to go through? Do you know what kind of turmoil I felt? You and Megatron and all the other Decepticons are the same! I hate –!"

Starscream snarled angrily and began to shake me back and forth in cutting me off so I couldn't finish my sentence. He brought me back to his face and forced me to look at him. "Listen, you little fleshy waste of space," he growled with his optics glowing, totally engulfing me in their light, "never EVER compare me to that unworthy piece of slag that calls himself our leader! You're lucky I don't kill you now! How I see it, your father left something behind – a clue to the artifact, and I know YOU know where it is!"

"F you," I moaned threateningly. "Even if I did, there is no way in the whole freakin' _universe_ I would tell you anything!"

"If you don't," the Decepticon hissed, "I will not hesitate to destroy you!"

I glared at him. "Arcee was right… you really aren't smart, are you? Lose me and what do you have – my mom?" I forced a chuckle. "I'll bet she doesn't know anything either. What would be the point of keeping her in your clutches?" I had no clue what I was doing. It sort of felt like I was only stalling him so I could stay alive for a few minutes longer… or a few seconds. Man, I kinda wished I would just throw up on him and get it over with.

"The adult female is no longer a factor," Starscream told me. "Now, all that matters, is _you_."

I was about to snap back at him when someone else beat me to it:

"Ellie!" Prowl shouted.

"Let 'er go, ya dog!" Jetfire roared angrily.

"Brother!" Apparently Sunstreaker was there too.

Starscream stepped back to face the tree Autobots who were approaching from what I guessed was the same way Sideswipe and I came from. A tall figure and a shorter figure, the tall one with indigo optics and the short one with baby-blue, stopped a distance from us while the third headed straight for Sideswipe.

"Brother – Sides!" he kept yelling. "C'mon 'bot, get up! Tell me, are you okay?" The red Autobot only groaned in response.

"Starscream," Prowl began, "release the human, or you will attempt to unburden yourself of Jetfire and myself in battle – unsuccessfully, I might add."

"Guys!" I moaned. "Help!"

"Hang on, spunk," Jetfire said reassuringly. "We'll get ya outta here."

"Don't try it, Jetfire!" Starscream barked. "I'm *holding* your precious little organic friend! Shoot me, you shoot her!"

I suddenly felt a very bad taste in my throat. 'Oh, crap.' I leaned forward and instantly began coughing violently. I needed to lie down or I was going to make a big mess, which wouldn't make the Decepticon holding me very happy.

"Ah!" Starscream suddenly screeched, jerking me around hysterically. "Don't you dare – oh Pit, it's going to get on me!"

"Now, Jetfire!" Prowl roared.

I soundlessly screamed when a huge shadowed white shape suddenly approached us and slammed an arm into Starscream's head. The Decepticon began to fall, shrieking loudly, and his grip on me loosened.

Then nothing was around me. I was falling. The night made it seem like I was falling in a black, endless abyss. I suddenly didn't feel like throwing up anymore; only pure panic swept through me as I waved my arms around wildly trying to grab something. I was going to *die*. I felt like crying again.

Something began to close around me and I got my voice back so I started screaming. I instantly curled up in a ball and held my arm against my stomach, wailing in terror.

"Do not fear," the 'bot holding me breathed. "I've got you."

"Prowl," I whispered.

I reached out with my good arm and held onto my friend's thumb as tightly as I could, never wanting to let go. I felt a jerk as Prowl flew from Starscream and Jetfire to get out of the way.

"Prowl, get Ellie out of here!" I heard Jetfire yell.

"Consider it done," Prowl responded calmly. "Sunstreaker, assist Jetfire."

"You don't even need to ask, Prowler!" Sunstreaker told him. "I'm gonna mess this guy up for tryin' to hurt Sides and Ellie!"

Starscream growled and I could see his form slowly begin to get up from the ground. "Slaggin' Autobots!" he screeched. "Give me the girl NOW! Jetfire, I can redeem your Decepticon position if you would just help your *real* friend out and do as Megatron had ordered of all who call themselves Decepticons!"

Jetfire didn't move and instead stared at Starscream with his violet optics narrowed. "I've stopped being your friend long ago," he snarled. "I ain't gonna let you touch my true friends just to get power! Prowl – " he turned to look at us " – get goin'! Keep her safe!"

"Of course," the police car 'bot acknowledged. "Ellie," he whispered to me, "please refrain from moving for your own safety."

I couldn't move if I wanted to anyway. I was exhausted and was leaning against Prowl's thumb, trying to stay awake despite my body's screams for sleep.

For a moment it felt like I was in an elevator going down and then I was lay on something soft, a strap being pulled around me. There was a rumbling sound and I could feel myself moving while sitting on the soft thing – a car seat. Prowl had transformed around me, which normally would have freaked me out; not today, obviously.

I thought I could hear Starscream shouting for something, but it died down as if he was traveling farther and farther away before it completely went silent.

I finally decided to give in to sleep simply because I knew I couldn't keep it up any longer. Prowl was saying something, but I couldn't understand. I just wanted to rest…

* * *

**Artist's Original Comment:**

Yes, it's sort of a cliff hanger, but at least Ellie's not in anymore danger right now... that is assuming Prowl can get her some medical attention soon. :D The suspense! **  
**


	18. Aftermath Part I

**Chapter 18**

_*zztt!*_

-Optimus to Prowl! Prowl, report!-

-...-

-Prowl! Where are ya, man?-

-Prowl here, Jazz… Optimus.-

-Good to hear from you, Autobot.-

-Yo, man, don't scare me like that! Ya got any word on Sideswipe?-

-He has been located.-

-Great, 'cuz now Sunstreaker's missing.-

-As is Jetfire.-

-I know where they are, Optimus sir.-

-Where? We're done here and now we need to regroup – neither Jazz nor I can seem to reach their commlink signatures.-

-They are occupied at the moment – Jetfire had disclosed some vital information to me and Sunstreaker had also mentioned something else critical, so it was necessary for the three of us to depart… after I calculated the probability of the rest of the group's success of course.-

-And how much was that, Prowler?-

-Surprisingly low…-

-Heh! Just to show we're too bada** for odds!-

-Prowl… Jetfire and Sunstreaker?-

-I still can't believe Jet, 'Hide, and Arcee disobeyed yer orders, Prime; an' bringin' Wingblast in too!-

-Later, Jazz… Prowl?-

-Jetfire and Sunstreaker are protecting Sideswipe. Starscream went after him when he left the scene with an important package.-

=Package?=

-Prowl, an explanation?-

-Yes sir. As far as I am able to deduce, Sideswipe had fled from the battle carrying the package only to be followed by Starscream.-

-It can't be Mrs. Witwicky… she… she's still here…*_ahem_* Anyway, what's the package Prowl-man?-

-Sunstreaker had approached me, informing me that Sideswipe had left and then Jetfire approached and told me of the package's presence. Naturally, I deemed it of importance and went along to assist them.-

-Prowl…-

-The three of us left, after I took the time to compute the calculations I had just disclosed to you not a klick ago, and then purposely encountered Starscream. I was able to secure the package and fled as Jetfire and Sunstreaker held him off for me as well as protect Sideswipe, who is currently wounded and immobilized. Now…-

=Prowl!=

-What is the package?-

-My apologies, Optimus… it is the Witwicky girl, Ellie.-

_*beep*…*beep*…*beep*…*beep*_

Is that the alarm already? Sounds funny…

_*beep*_

Ughn… But I don't want to get up. Not yet.

*_beep_*

Man… any minute now Mom's gonna come in telling me to get up and get ready.

*_beep_*

But for what; school? I don't have to go there anymore; we live in the Autobot base now.

*_beep_*

Hold on a second… Autobot… Decepticon… Oh, holy crap!

*_beep_*

I snapped my eyes open as fast as was humanly possible. I was planning on jumping outta bed and marching straight to Optimus' office – I wanted to know if he had a plan for saving Mom yet, and if not boy was I gonna _give_ him one! I would just have to figure it out first.

However, the light in my room hurt my eyes when I opened them and I was forced to shut them again. I waited for a bit for the pain to go away, rubbing my eyelids with my fingers to try and make it go faster. Man – I _hated_ that! Whose bright idea was it to leave the light on anyway? – er, no pun intended.

After a few seconds, I squinted my eyes to keep from being blinded while reaching down to throw the covers off. Did someone steal my blanket in the night and give me a new one? This one was white instead of green.

Meh. I don't care about that right now.

I swung my legs over the side of my bed – they were stiff, which was expected, but they also ached a lot – and was about to stand up when…

_Yank!_

"OW!"

*Brzzt!* *Brzzt!* *Brzzt!*

I quickly sat back down and grabbed my left arm at my elbow pit with a hiss. Some sort of alarm continued to go off instead of the steady beat from earlier. But I didn't pay any attention to it. Cautiously I looked at my arm, trying to see how I had hurt it.

I stared at what I saw.

In the pit of my elbow a long clear tube had been taped there and it looked like there was a needle casually attaching the tube to the inside of my vein.

I suddenly shivered and looked away from it; needles had always made me feel weird. It was pretty obvious that my pain had come from pulling at the tape keeping the needle in place. Ew… the sudden thought of the needle moving in my vein when I pulled on it made me squeamish all over again.

I nervously looked back at my arm – avoiding having to look at the needle – because I thought I had seen something else on my upper arm.

Hey, there was.

Tightly wrapped around my bicep was some clean white-colored cloth; well, clean except for a reddish brown stain that seemed to be seeping through from the other side. Experimentally I reached with my right hand and gripped the upper edge of the wrapping. I pulled it back to try and look under it, but I stopped when I felt a painful tugging at my arm from somewhere in the wrap. I let go of the cloth and held it back against my skin, wincing slightly in pain. Ow… why did that hurt so much?

*Brzzt!* *Brzzt!* *Brzzt!*

The alarm was still going off, and I quickly realized that it was coming from one of many machines that I just noticed were at my bedside; I couldn't help but think that they looked like the ones in Ratchet's Medbay, but smaller. There were screens on two or three of them and each had a line that peaked and dipped with a number beside it – most of those numbers were around 100, I realized.

One screen though, the one on the machine where the alarm was coming from, had a flat line and instead of numbers were three dashes. I began to worry; what did that mean? I was asleep before, but why was it going off now? I would have woken up if it went off before.

A thought suddenly came to me. The Decepticons! They had somehow captured me! The alarm was for _exactly_ when I woke up so that they would know and would come to torture me or something!

I quickly checked myself and became aware that more than just the needle (ugh) was attached to me. On my chest under my shirt it felt like I had stickers right on my skin. They looked like those suction-cup things I always saw used in hospitals; that's exactly what I used to think they were, but they're just stickers and wires.

That only seemed to add to my suspicion. The Decepticons didn't want me for interrogation; they were experimenting on me! Holy crap, what am I gonna do now?

Well… for an experimentation chamber it looked really clean, I mused distractedly; no rusted metal or random sharp objects lying around like I would think of whenever I thought of the Decepticons' base. This was a room that was great for humans, though obviously really tight for a giant robot – maybe Frenzy was the one experimenting on me.

I bit my lip at that thought… If he came in again I was going to hop up and try to beat the slag outta him; then I'll escape. I'm small enough, I think. I could probably get out of the Decepticon base on my own. If only I had my cell phone – I would call Ironhide to come and get me when I was out. So that was a problem; how would I contact the Autobots?

Even though the "she's awake" alarm kept going off my ears picked up footsteps from beyond the wide wooden door in the room. They were quickly growing louder, and I thought they were heading for me. There was no time to run away and I suddenly became unsure if I would have been able to even _walk_; I just didn't feel too well.

Dangit, if only I had listened to Ironhide! Not listening to somebody is what got me in this whole mess in the first place!

I leaned forward and grabbed the covers with one hand. I then fell back on my pillow and covered my head, hiding as much of the rest of my body as I could. I felt dizzy and sick because of all the movement I was making… dangit, that sucked. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe as quietly as I could; maybe Frenzy would think I'm still asleep. Maybe he would leave me alone.

I heard the door handle turn and open and the footsteps softly clacked across the room. They grew closer and closer. Surprisingly though I didn't hear the clanking and scraping that was usually heard when a robot walked. I wondered what that meant.

They stopped nearby, so I clutched the blanket in my fist as tight as I could. I tried to will myself invisible, hoping he wouldn't bother me.

"Miss Witwicky?"

My eyes opened. That didn't sound like a robot's voice at all. It was more like a man's voice. And the Decepticons didn't have holoforms… did they? I was almost sure they didn't. Almost.

I felt the blanket getting tugged from my grasp near my head and I couldn't hold onto it any longer. It came off from my face and I shut my eyes again tightly, scared that I might come face-to-face to a tiny Decepticon.

A moment passed. Two.

I carefully slit one eye open and looked at whoever was there. I quickly opened both eyes when I saw that it was clearly not a Decepticon.

Looking down at me with a smile was a pale man with cloudy blue eyes and sandy spiked hair.

"Welcome back, kiddo."

I began to sit up again and the man helped me, surprising me a bit. I couldn't help but think that he was so gentle. Decepticons weren't like that. He stepped back so I took the time to look at him. The man was in pale blue scrubs under a long white coat and I could see a red Autobot insignia on the right side of his chest. Yeah, definitely not a Decepticon.

My eyebrows moved and squished toward the center of my head when I remembered what he had said. "B-Back?" I asked; I was surprised to find that my voice was hoarse and hurt a little. I tried to clear my throat to fix it, but nothing really happened.

"Yeah," the man said. "Hold your index finger out for me please…" By now he had gone around until he was on the left side of my bed and had picked up a small black device with a wire on it that was dangling from a mass of tangled wires attached to the machines. I did as he asked me and held up my left pointer finger. He clipped the black thing onto my finger and I flinched, half-expecting there to be a small poke or something; I was relieved when there wasn't.

Immediately the alarm stopped and the machine then produced the same rhythmic beeping that I woke up to before. I looked up at the man again – wow, he was tall – and gave him a really confused look, like the one I had a moment ago.

"Where am I?" I asked quietly, my voice scratching a little painfully. The man handed me a small jug of water, so I took it and began to drink. I suddenly realized how thirsty I was and how dry my mouth felt because I just couldn't stop drinking. The whole thing was gone too quickly so the last bit from the jug I sloshed in my mouth with my tongue before swallowing. Oh man, I couldn't believe how good water tasted… even better than root beer. I never thought that possible, but now I knew better.

"Miss Witwicky – here, I'll take that," the man took the jug from me, earning a slight pout from me even though it was empty, and set it on a nearby side table. "I'm your nurse, Bradley White; but you can call me Rad if you'd like that better."

I nodded slightly. "Rad," I repeated, my voice sounding much better. Still felt dry though. "Where am I?"

Rad smiled. "Welcome to the N.E.S.T. Global Defense base," he said proudly. "It's made up of the Secondary United Nations Military and the Autobot Earth-Stationed Units as a defense force against the Decepticons on our planet."

"Wait, wait," I began, stopping his explanation, "_humans_ know about the Autobots? How come nobody ever said anything?"

Rad just shrugged. "Maybe Optimus didn't think you should know about it just yet."

I grumbled quietly. "Great, so there's more stuff I'm not allowed to know about. Where is this place in the world anyway?"

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Rad shifting a little, not looking at me. "Uh… that's classified," he responded quietly. "I'm, uh… not authorized to tell you."

I rolled my eyes and leaned back against the bed, folding my right arm over my stomach. "Exactly what I mean," I pointed out. "I'm not allowed to know anything."

The man chuckled, ruffling my bangs carefully with his hand. "It's okay, Miss Witwicky –"

"Ellie," I told him as I fixed my hair, or at least tried to; I don't think it looked too good from being stuck in bed anyway. "My last name's too weird to hear aloud outside of school."

Rad laughed again. "Anyway, now that you're awake," he began as he went and retrieved a chair and a clipboard from nearby, pulling them close and sitting in the chair facing toward me, "I would like to ask you a couple questions; make sure you're all here and all." He folded over a page on the clipboard to a yellow pad and clicked a pen that he pulled from his pocket.

I shrugged, but winced when my left arm shot out a brief pang of hurt. "Sure, shoot," I said. I suddenly grinned, another comment coming to mind. "Oh wait, don't. Someone already beat you to the punch."

It seemed like humor was the best thing that Rad was capable of understanding because he laughed yet again.

* * *

**Artist's Original Comment:**

Yes, I know this is 'late' considering it's been a few months since the last update. Sorry it took so long ^^; Let's hope that the next one won't be so late.

And oh look! Rad White from _Transformers Armada_ makes an appearance here! Yay!

I hope to bring Carlos and Alexis in sometime... I just don't know when XD **  
**


	19. Aftermath Part II

Chapter 19

**Title**: Transformers: Giant Surprise, Chapter 19  
**Rating**: PG  
**Word** Count: 4,443

* * *

.

* * *

I was dirty. I hadn't had a bath in a while because – according to Rad – I had been stuck unconscious in bed for nearly three days, causing all the Autobots to worry about me.

_He_ was the one who said 'all the Autobots'… I didn't ask him about Ironhide because I was pretty sure how the truck robot felt already. I wish I tried harder to be friends with him…

I asked about my mom. Rad just looked up from his clipboard and gave me a weird smile before telling me I needed to sleep more. I didn't argue much because I actually _was_ tired. Sleep would have done me good. He promised me some food after I woke and I told him I would hold him to that.

* * *

I didn't dream. I wasn't even completely sure I had gone to sleep before I heard something outside the door of my room.

I groaned quietly, reaching with my good arm to pull the covers over my face. I _certainly_ didn't appreciate being woken up already.

The noise just outside of my room sounded like voices. As I woke up a little bit more I could hear that one of the voices was sharp and snarky while the other was trying to be calm. Both were men's voices and I couldn't exactly recognize either of them.

Well… until the snarky man said "Captain Bradley White, you are interfering with my duties concerning National Security. If you don't want yourself court-marshaled, you'll step aside and let me do my job as the _Advisor_ of National Security to the _President of these United States_."

"Sir, she's been injured," Rad told the man. "Have a bit of a heart and let her rest up, will you? She's got a long while ahead of her…"

"All the better to get this over with now. Step aside, _Corporal_."

It was quiet for a little bit and I pulled the blanket down from over my head. I actually started to worry… did Rad just get fired? Were they walking away so he _could_ get fired? What did he mean by 'Corporal'? He just said that Rad was a Captain.

I jumped a little when the door opened suddenly. I saw Rad had his hand on the door knob, but he was suddenly pushed aside by some tall, lanky, white guy in a dark blue wool suit with a white collared shirt. He had weird blue and black striped tie and a tiny little pin of an American flag on the left lapel of his jacket. He had brown and grayish hair that was combed back and glasses even thicker than Marcie's.

The man strut right up to the side of my bed as I sat up to… I don't know, greet him? Shake his hand? I had no idea what he wanted to do first.

Without saying anything he grabbed a chair and quickly sat down beside the bed. I could see Rad coming in, a frown on his face as he stared at the back of this other man's head like he wanted to smack it. I guess that should have been a hint about how I should feel about this guy.

"Ellie Witwicky," the man said. There was a tone in his voice that demanded my attention and I didn't hesitate to give it to him.

"Um… hi…"

His face scrunched up a little, almost like he was annoyed. "Hi," he returned flatly. "I am Director Theodore Galloway, National Security Advisor to President Barrack Obama and I'm here to gather a picture of what the Autobots had done to you and Mrs. Witwicky three days ago on November the 12th."

I stared at him. "The _President_?" I asked. I sighed. "Well… of course he would know about the Autobots too… I mean, he's the freakin' _President_…"

"Miss Witwicky," Mr. Galloway almost growled. "I don't have time to sit here all day. Please, can we just get to the Autobots?" He had a clipboard in his hand with a yellow pack of lined paper and a black clicking pen in the other. "Let's just start at the beginning then, shall we?"

I nodded. "Sure. Um… well, the first Autobot I met was Arcee."

"Which one is that?" Galloway asked immediately.

"Uh… the pink motorcycle." Was this guy not able to tell them apart or something? I got all their names pretty quickly…

The man snorted. He wrote something on the paper in front of him. "Right. Go on then…"

I blinked and looked at Rad. He made a quiet sigh, but nodded at me. I swallowed and continued with the story.

* * *

"… and the next day Ironhide came to my house and he honked his horn to call me outside."

"Why?" Galloway asked.

"Well, Arcee had gone missing and I guess he figured I'd be worried and would want to help…"

"He took you from your home then? Without your mother's permission?"

I gulped and squirmed slightly. "Well… Mom didn't know about them so I didn't tell her. And I did get her permission when I told her I was going to hang out with some friends…"

"You consider the Autobots your friends?"

"Yeah, of course," I said a little quickly. I was getting annoyed about being constantly interrupted. "I mean, Arcee helped me out with that mugger and all the others were – _are _– so nice, and so I thought I could trust them."

Galloway huffed, like he didn't believe it. "And so the black truck took you away to go on some wild goose chase…"

I glared at him. "Not so wild because after meeting up with Prowl we followed another police cruiser and it led us right to Arcee." I wanted to end that with a proud "Ha!" but I didn't. "She was actually in an old abandoned junkyard in that part of Tranquility that I mentioned before. Ironhide called Prowl and told him to go get Optimus and the others while we scoped out the place and made sure there weren't any bad guys around."

"Let me guess… there were?" Galloway gave me a patronizing/bored look and I wanted to stick my tongue out at him.

"Yes," I hissed lowly. "Starscream showed up not too long after we arrived. He talked to some Decepticon named Barricade and then _he_ showed up. They woke Arcee up from, uh… stasis, and they started to interrogate her again."

"Again? Meaning they've done it before?"

"Before we got there, yeah," I said.

"Did they get anything?"

"Uh… I don't think so?"

"You mean you're not sure?"

"No, I'm pretty sure," I told him. "She didn't tell them anything."

"How can you be sure?" Galloway asked suddenly. "You weren't there."

"Because she told Starscream to slag off!" I retorted. "And Arcee's not weak – she can totally handle herself when faced with an ugly Decepticon mug."

"I ask that you calm down, Miss Witwicky," Galloway told me, his eyes narrowed at me.

"And I ask that you just shut up and let me tell my story," I huffed. I didn't even think about it… I just said that to him and I honestly started to regret it a bit. Who knew what this guy could do to me – legally and politically speaking, anyway? He didn't seem to care that I was just a kid after all.

Galloway pursed his lips together and didn't look away for a few moments. I tried my best not to look away either.

"Carry on, Miss Witwicky," he said, and I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

* * *

I tried to hurry through the rest of the story. I could totally see why Rad didn't seem to like this guy… he just had a _thing_ against the Autobots. Was he bitten by one as a baby? Who freaking knew… I decided that I didn't have to tell him everything that went on with my mom and the Autobots. I didn't even tell him that Ironhide was my mom's and my Guardian. Galloway might decide that my injury was all _his_ fault and I couldn't let the big guy get in trouble for something when it was all up to me whether I could have avoided it or not.

When Galloway asked questions I gave him really short answers and didn't tell him much more than he strictly asked for.

But the questions just kept coming and I eventually folded my good arm over my lap, looking away from him.

"I'm hungry," I said.

"But I'm not finished here," Galloway told me.

"I don't care. I haven't eaten in three days. I'm hungry."

The man groaned. "I guess this will have to do then," he grumbled.

I heard the chair scrape as he stood up and I watched him head for the door. Just as he got there he turned and looked at me through his thick glasses.

"I'm expecting a speedy recovery from you, Miss Witwicky. Then we can probably get you back into a _normal_ life like any kid deserves."

It didn't sound like he meant what he said, but I turned away again and ignored him anyway. I didn't want a normal life… The Autobots were my friends and I didn't want to have to give them up.

Galloway finally went through the door, but not before saying, "Get her something to eat, Captain. That's an order!"

Rad sighed and went after him to close the door. He turned to me and I immediately met his eyes.

"I don't like him," I told Rad.

Rad snorted. "No one does, really. I don't know why a Democratic president would have someone like that as an advisor." He shrugged. "I guess everybody needs a pessimistic view on things."

I stuck my tongue out and blew a short raspberry. "Lame."

"Very lame," Rad agreed. He smiled at me. "So… what would you like for lunch?"

* * *

One sandwich and a bit of soup later I was lying in bed again. Not sleeping… I didn't feel like sleeping. I was too busy wondering about everything that had happened.

The last bits of my memory from when I got shot were still a little fuzzy. I remembered Sideswipe finding me, after having bashed through a cement wall, and then I remembered when his holoform grabbed me and put me in his passenger seat. I could remember feeling woozy and sick (which wasn't a surprise, as even now when I wasn't loaded up on painkillers I still felt like I would throw up) and practically threatening to puke on Starscream.

Besides that, and maybe a few other small details, I didn't recall a single thing. It was annoying, really. The more I thought about it, pieces _did_ come to mind, but they were usually just dumb little things like I somehow threw a shoe at Frenzy or the particular way that Starscream's optics made it impossible to see anything else when he was looking straight at me.

It bothered me. I was _sure_ that there was something that I had forgotten… something about my mom? Where was she, anyway? Did she get hurt too? Is she dealing with that Galloway butthead? Why hadn't I seen her yet? Three days had to be too long for a kid to see her parent, right?

Not for the first time in my stay, I was interrupted from myself by noises outside of my room. I blinked and immediately looked toward the door, trying to hear what I could without getting out of bed; I wanted to know if I should prepare for ignoring a certain Advisor of National Security.

I didn't hear Galloway, though. Instead I could hear Rad, a rough and vaguely familiar voice, and two new voices that definitely belonged to men. The rough voice was grumbling and snapping, like the man it belonged to sounded permanently pissed at life. Rad and one of the other two voices sounded like they were trying to calm the grumpy man while the third seemed to almost chatter excitedly in a fruity, but slightly gravelly tone like he would have been someone trying to sell some nifty must-have house product on a TV. He did calm down himself though to respond to the grump's questions and retorts.

Like before, I didn't hear what they were saying until they were right outside of my room.

"Come on, big guy, reign yourself in a bit," the fruity voice said. "Just chill for a klick, alright?"

"Shuddup, ya nut," the grumpy voice growled. "I ain't gonna explode on 'er."

"He means that she's probably still sleeping and confused," the calm voice that was not Rad said. This man sounded like a no-nonsense kind of man, his voice kind of deep and mellow compared to everyone else's.

"The last thing we want to do is scare her," Rad added.

The grump muttered something that I thought sounded like "Ah ain't gonna scare her," but I couldn't be sure. "Do Ah _have_ to wear this d*mn box?"

"You can put it on a chair inside," Rad told him.

"Gently, though," the fruity voice said. "These are just prototypes and I don't want to spend the time rebuilding them all over again."

"Ah ain't gonna break your slag, 'Jack," the grump huffed. "Can we get inside now?"

"One at a time," Rad said. "Stand by the wall, guys. Lennox? You can come in first."

The grumpy one grumbled and I didn't hear anything from the one named Jack. There was a bit of shuffling and two small thuds on the wall, as if someone was leaning against it with a heavy backpack.

The door opened and I decided to sit up to meet these people Rad had brought.

The man following Rad was decked out in full camouflage with the name LENNOX on a patch over the right side of his chest. On the other side was a patch that had the initials N.E.S.T., which I remembered had something to do with the base I was in. On a patch in the center of his chest was a gold seven-pointed leaf and on his right shoulder was another patch with the American flag. The man himself had sort of a tall face topped with a sort of a limp, spikey, sandy brown army cut with a definite widow's peak. His lower face was peppered in a shadow of a beard, which could easily have either been his default look or he just didn't shave this morning.

"Ellie?" Rad said as he came in. "You've got some visitors."

The man – _Lennox_ – smiled at me and gave me a salute. I blinked, surprised at this. "Miss Ellie Witwicky," he said. "A pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

"Uh…" What?

He dropped his hand and stepped forward to offer it for a shake. "I'm Major Bill Lennox. I knew your dad before… when he was my commanding officer."

My eyes widened. "Oh – _oh!_ Yeah! Um… pleasure to meet you too!" I quickly grabbed the Major's hand with my good one and shook it. Holy crap… this was a guy my dad knew! I felt dumb for thinking this, but it was pretty amazing to actually meet someone my dad saw when he was away from home!

_So that what the salute was about… cool!_

Bill smiled and stepped back, placing his hands behind his back. He suddenly looked a bit sad, though he was still smiling. "Your dad was… he was a great man. I'm sorry it's taken until now for me to offer you my condolences."

I swallowed a bit and nodded. "Uh… d-don't worry about it… I guess it was kinda hard for you guys to lose him too…"

Bill nodded. He smiled a little wider. "I'll never forget when he decided to give everyone a field day once and he and Optimus just let all the grunts run around and race like some ratty street racers. Superiors and advisors didn't like it, but it was loads of fun."

I grinned. "That sounds pretty awesome, actually," I told him. "My dad _was_ the best… and so is Optimus." Even though he kept things from me, I decided that to avoid getting myself into more trouble I ought to respect the Autobot Leader a little more than I did. Like Sideswipe said, he really did look out for everyone's best interest and well-being.

Bill nodded again.

"Hey, Ellie," Rad said, and I looked at him. "There's a couple other guys that wanted to see you. Well, one of them just wanted to meet you and make sure the other didn't break his new toys." Bill smirked slightly at that and despite not knowing who these two guys were yet I grinned too.

"Alright," I said. "They're just outside, right?"

"Yeah," Rad said. "I'm just going to bring them in one at a time, okay?"

I was eager to meet the two other guys that Rad had led over and I didn't understand why they couldn't come in together.

But I just nodded at the nurse and smiled at him. "Alright," I said.

Rad grinned back. "One moment," he said and turned to poke his head out the door. "'Jack?" I heard him say. "You're up."

I heard a small scraping sound on the wall as someone stood up and Rad immediately made way for the man that seemed to practically prance into the room with the biggest freaking grin on his face that I had ever seen.

This man, Caucasian, was only a bit taller than Rad – definitely shorter than Bill. He wore greenish-blue jeans that were rolled up at the bottom around his white and red sneakers and a dull green button-up shirt. On either shoulder I could see a black patch of the Autobot symbol and his sleeves were also rolled up to reveal a slightly tacky-looking tattoo. I couldn't tell exactly what it was yet though as he was too far away. He had straps on his shoulders that indicated he was wearing a backpack or something, though I couldn't see it either.

"Ellie Witwicky!" the man said with the fruity/gravelly voice that I heard outside of my door. He reached the side of my bed and immediately reached out with both hands to grasp my right hand, shaking it enthusiastically. I could finally see that tattoo of his – a wrench wrapped in barbed wire set on fire. How… weird. "Greetings! My name's Wheeljack – I'm an inventor and mechanic for the Autobots. Great to meet you, kid."

This was Wheeljack? I had somehow expected him to be an Autobot, actually. I was surprised that he was actually a human. How on Earth did he get 'Wheeljack' for a nickname then?

Wheeljack had a squarish jaw, clean shaven and dusted lightly in a few light-colored freckles that spread up his cheeks and over his nose. He had brilliant blue eyes, sort of like the ones that the Autobots' holoforms had and they were wide like he was still seven when in actuality he looked closer to forty or forty-five. His hair looked like it was originally red, but it now seemed to rapidly going gray with bangs parted directly in the middle and framing his forehead. The hair in the back seemed to somewhat defy gravity as it was stuck up in a sort of Wolverine-style.

"Um, hi," I said, trying to reciprocate the handshake. "I heard Ironhide and Jetfire mention you. They said you're the one who made the holoforms, right?" It blew my mind a little bit that a _human_ could make tech like this, but I guess with Autobot influence there were some guys who could pull it off.

Wheeljack stopped shaking my hand and he seemed to grin even wider. "Yeah! Probably my best invention yet! Great for Arcee and other open-air bots that would stick out if they were caught driving down the road without one." He twirled around and gestured to the thing on his back. "I've been working on making them more transportable. I'm flying through prototypes like crazy, but these are the best yet! I'm hoping to get them down to being as small as a cellular phone next."

The device was a turtle shell-shape, save for a couple ridged, red columns about as big around as a softball on either side that glowed with a low sort of pulsing light. Other than that, it was a dull chrome color and didn't look otherwise spectacular.

Something suddenly clicked in my brain – if Wheeljack was human, why did he have one of these portable holoform generator things?

"Hang on, you're a Transformer?"

Wheeljack turned around again, his smile never having wavered. "Yeah, of course! Humans might be smart, but no one knows Cybertronian circuitry like I do – except for Ratchet, of course."

I blinked at him. "I could have sworn that you were human a second ago," I confessed.

"They're that good, huh? Great!" His eyes seemed to flash in excitement, and I realized that I should have taken them as a hint before. "It's always nice to see that my inventions are working better than I thought."

"Pshh, I'll say it works," I said. "It's definitely amazing."

He seemed to grin even wider. "Are ya interested in how it works?" he asked.

I nodded. "Sure!"

"Well! I got the idea from Hound, who is a 'bot who is excellent at illusionary technology. I started to study his applications and …"

Bill chuckled suddenly. "Cool down, 'Jack," he said, interrupting the 'bot in his rambling. "The big guy's still waiting outside."

Wheeljack turned and blinked at him. "Huh? Oh yeah – can't keep him out there. Let's get him inside, then."

Rad smiled at me. "He's been worried sick for you," he said. "I'll go get him…"

I nodded and watched him go back to the door. I tried to think of whom it could be that was waiting outside. Sideswipe? Optimus? Jetfire? None of them had a grumpy-sounding voice like that though. Maybe Ratchet? Sunstreaker? They didn't quite have the right tone to match the voice I heard…

"Come on in, Ironhide," Rad said, and my brain screeched to a halt.

What? What? _What?_ _Ironhide?_

Now I recognized the voice from earlier. I couldn't believe I had forgotten so easily…

And he was going to see that I had hurt myself. _Crap!_ He'd told me to be careful and I wasn't! He was going to see it and he was going to yell at me for being stupid. I didn't want to have to sit through that! I'd rather deal with Galloway again.

Ironhide's holoform appeared in the door, hands in the pockets of his leather jacket and him frowning slightly. Rad stepped aside for him and I swallowed quietly as he started to approach. He went to the chair and took the hologram device he had himself and carefully set it down in an upright position. His form flickered slightly when it was detached, but he seemed to have enough concentration not to drop it.

Lennox and Wheeljack moved to form a space between the two of them so that he could come to the side of my bed. As he came closer I bit my lip and quickly looked down into my lap. There was no point in avoiding it; I was going to just have to suck it up and let him lecture me. I just had to try not to cry…

The holoform stopped right beside my bed. I swallowed quietly and kept looking down the creases of the blanket in my lap.

"Ellie," Ironhide greeted. "It's, uh… it's good to see ya in one piece, kid."

My insides fluttered uncomfortably and I nodded, still not looking at him. "Yeah…" I didn't know what to say to him.

I heard Ironhide make the holoform sigh. "Ah'm… sorry ya got hurt."

I shook my head slightly. "S'not your fault," I mumbled.

He huffed and my shoulders stiffened slightly (and a little painfully). "Course it is," he said. "Ah was yer Guardian. Ah Dinn't do mah job right."

"Don't blame yourself," I said, barely glancing toward him. I only looked at his stomach – I didn't want to look the holoform in the eye yet. "It was Frenzy and Ravage's fault… and mine for being stupid."

The holoform suddenly began to kneel down and I jumped a little, now finding myself eye-to-eye with the hard-faced, gray-haired man/bot.

"Ya ain't stupid, Ellie," he told me sternly. "Ya just wanted yer mom back is all. It ain't like ya _wanted_ to get hurt, right?"

I swallowed. "Right," I replied quietly. I felt my nose tingle and my eyes shudder a little with tears building up behind them. I didn't want to cry. Not then. Not in front of Ironhide.

"An' yer safe now, right?" he asked.

I nodded. "Uh-huh," I squeaked softly. I sniffed a little bit, trying to do it quietly.

"Then ya ain't got nothin' ta worry about. Ain't no Decepticon comin' ta get ya here. An' it ain't gonna do ya any good if ya keep blamin' yerself fer somethin' ya couldn't stop." Ironhide frowned and _he_ looked down, like I did before. "I shoulda stayed with ya and kept ya safe. I hope ya can forgive me."

I sniffed again, a little louder than before. "I-I do, Ironhide," I stuttered. "You went to go help save my mom, so… so I'm not mad at you at all. In fact…" I swallowed and reached to wipe my nose with my good wrist. "I-I'm happy you did, I-Ironhi-ide. Th-thank you…"

"If yer happy," Ironhide said, "then why are ya cryin'?"

I looked down and picked up the edge of my blanket. "I-I d-don't kn-know…"

Ironhide's hand came and gently pried the blanket out of my grasp. "Stop that. Here…"

I felt a careful hand on my opposite shoulder and I was pulled in against Ironhide's chest. I whimpered and quickly wrapped my arm around the back of Ironhide's leather coat, clinging tightly to the collar. I nuzzled my face into the red fabric of Ironhide's shirt. It was warm, like I was being held by an actual person. It was also very soft and I worried for a moment that I was ruining his nice, clean shirt with my snot and tears.

I sniffed and tilted up to look at him. "Ironhide…"

"S'alright," he said. "It's jus' a holoform."

I nodded. I snuggled back in and rested my cheek against him. "Best holoform ever, though…"

Ironhide started chuckling. "Now watch what ya say aroun' Wheeljack – don't wan' him ta get an inflated head o'er this."

I giggled. "Still the best," I said, smiling.


End file.
